Editing Phonograph (section)

=== The early phonographs ===
[[File:Drawing for a Phonograph - NARA - 595515 (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Patent drawing]] for Edison's phonograph, May 18, 1880]]
[[Thomas Edison]] conceived the principle of recording and reproducing sound between May and July 1877 as a byproduct of his efforts to "play back" recorded [[telegraph]] messages and to automate speech sounds for transmission by [[telephone]].<ref>Patrick Feaster, "Speech Acoustics and the Keyboard Telephone: Rethinking Edison's Discovery of the Phonograph Principle," ''ARSC Journal'' 38:1 (Spring 2007), 10–43; Oliver Berliner and Patrick Feaster, "Letters to the Editor: Rethinking Edison's Discovery of the Phonograph Principle," ''ARSC Journal'' 38:2 (Fall 2007), 226–228.</ref> His first experiments were with waxed paper.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dubey |first1=N. B. |title=Office Management: Developing Skills for Smooth Functioning |date=2009 |page=139 |publisher=Global India Publications |isbn=9789380228167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3aiA1URwOXIC&q=phonograph+cylinders&pg=PA139 |access-date=22 March 2019 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415221912/https://books.google.com/books?id=3aiA1URwOXIC&q=phonograph+cylinders&pg=PA139 |url-status=live }}</ref> He announced his invention of the first ''phonograph'', a device for recording and replaying sound, on November 21, 1877 (early reports appear in ''[[Scientific American]]'' and several newspapers in the beginning of November, and an even earlier announcement of Edison working on a "talking-machine" can be found in the ''[[Chicago Daily Tribune]]'' on May 9<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84031492/1877-05-09/ed-1/. |title=Chicago Sunday tribune. |newspaper=[[Chicago Daily Tribune]] |date=9 May 1877}}</ref>), and he demonstrated the device for the first time on November 29 (it was [[patent]]ed on February 19, 1878, as US Patent 200,521). "In December, 1877, a young man came into the office of the ''Scientific American'', and placed before the editors a small, simple machine about which few preliminary remarks were offered. The visitor without any ceremony whatever turned the crank, and to the astonishment of all present the machine said: 'Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?' The machine thus spoke for itself, and made known the fact that it was the phonograph..."<ref>{{cite news |work=[[Scientific American]] |date=July 25, 1896 |url=http://www.machine-history.com/The%20Phonograph.%201877%20thru%201896 |title=The Phonograph, 1877 thru 1896 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091202084044/http://www.machine-history.com/The%20Phonograph.%201877%20thru%201896 |archive-date=2009-12-02 }}</ref>[[File:Amberola close-up.jpg|thumb|Close up of the mechanism of an Edison Amberola, {{Circa|1915}}|alt=]]The music critic [[Herman Klein]] attended an early demonstration (1881–82) of a similar machine. On the early phonograph's reproductive capabilities he wrote in retrospect: "It sounded to my ear like someone singing about half a mile away, or talking at the other end of a big hall; but the effect was rather pleasant, save for a peculiar nasal quality wholly due to the mechanism, although there was little of the scratching that later was a prominent feature of the flat disc. Recording for that primitive machine was a comparatively simple matter. I had to keep my mouth about six inches away from the horn and remember not to make my voice too loud if I wanted anything approximating to a clear reproduction; that was all. When it was played over to me and I heard my own voice for the first time, one or two friends who were present said that it sounded rather like mine; others declared that they would never have recognised it. I daresay both opinions were correct."<ref name="klein">{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Herman |editor=William R. Moran |title=Herman Klein and The Gramophone |year=1990 |publisher=[[Amadeus Press]] |isbn=0-931340-18-7 |page=380 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/hermankleingram00klei/page/380 }}</ref>

''[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]]'' newspaper from Melbourne, Australia, reported on an 1878 demonstration at the [[Royal Society of Victoria]], writing "There was a large attendance of ladies and gentlemen, who appeared greatly interested in the various scientific instruments exhibited. Among these the most interesting, perhaps, was the trial made by Mr. Sutherland with the phonograph, which was most amusing. Several trials were made, and were all more or less successful. 'Rule Britannia' was distinctly repeated, but great laughter was caused by the repetition of the convivial song of 'He's a jolly good fellow,' which sounded as if it was being sung by an old man of 80 with a cracked voice."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5943561 |title=The Royal Society. |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |issue=10,030 |location=[[Melbourne]], [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] |date=9 August 1878 |accessdate=26 June 2021 |page=10 |via=[[National Library of Australia]] |archive-date=21 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221114841/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5943561 |url-status=live }}</ref>