ACOUSTIC ERA

PHONAUTOGRAPH

1857 – Leon Scott invented the Phonautograph, a scientific device used to study sound waves. It traces but cannot play back sound waves. The intent is to visually represent sound onto soot-covered paper.

BACK TO TIMELINE

EAR PHONAUTOGRAPH

1874 – Alexander Graham Bell experimented with a Phonautograph. He used a human ear (including the internal parts) of a cadaver, attaching a stylus to the eardrum and using it to make a recording. The recording mechanism was the human ear. By removing a chunk of skull including the inner ear from a human cadaver, and attaching a stylus to the moving parts of the ear, he was able to use this bio-mechanical device to make a recording of the sounds that entered a recording horn.

PHONOGRAPH

1877 – Thomas Edison conceived of the idea of using a sensitive electromagnetic device to inscribe telephone messages on a strip of wax-coated paper. A sheet of thick tinfoil, wrapped around cylinder "C" is indented by a stylus attached to diaphragm "A." This was known to be the phonograph.

After some experimentation, he turned instead to a device that could record straight from the air instead of relying on a telephone connection. A verse of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is reportedly the first phonograph recording to be made and played back.

GRAPHOPHONE

1886 – Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter improved the Phonograph and the Graphophone was invented. The device uses engraved, wax-based cylinders in place of tinfoil, allowing for a more permanent recording

BERLINER'S GRAMOPHONE

1887 – German - American inventor Emile Berliner was granted a U.S. patent for the Gramophone, a machine to record sound by tracing a lateral groove of even depth—as opposed to the phonograph’s vertical “hill and dale” groove — onto a cylindrical drum. Shortly thereafter, a disc replaced the cylinder.

Phonograph and Graphophone licensees attempted to lease or sell the devices to stenographers to replace hand-writing. They made little money until someone had the bright idea to make a coin-operated phonograph for public amusement.

Library of Congress: Recorded Sound Section. (n.d.) A Recorded Sound Timeline. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2013/files/recorded_sound_timeline.pdf

Morton, D. (1998). The history of recording technology. Retrieved from http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/musictech1.php

Let's learn!