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diff --git a/old/30112-h.zip b/old/30112-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3c1228 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/30112-h.zip diff --git a/old/30112-h/30112-h.htm b/old/30112-h/30112-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1425745 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/30112-h/30112-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1030 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory, by Leslie J. Newville</title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr { width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + p.dropcap:first-letter{float: left; padding-right: 3px; font-size: 250%; line-height: 83%; width:auto;} + .caps {text-transform:uppercase;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} + + .hang {margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Development of the Phonograph at Alexander +Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory, by Leslie J. Newville</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory</p> +<p> Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5, (pages 69-79)</p> +<p>Author: Leslie J. Newville</p> +<p>Release Date: September 27, 2009 [eBook #30112]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONOGRAPH AT ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S VOLTA LABORATORY***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by<br /> + Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Stephanie Eason,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Contributions from</span></p> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">The Museum of History and Technology:</span></p> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Paper 5</span></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Development of the Phonograph at</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory</span></p> + +<p class="right"><i>Leslie J. Newville</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> +<h2>DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONOGRAPH<br /> +AT ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S<br /> +VOLTA LABORATORY</h2> + +<p class="center"><big><i>By Leslie J. Newville</i></big></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The fame of Thomas A. Edison rests most securely on his genius for +making practical application of the ideas of others. However, it +was Alexander Graham Bell, long a Smithsonian Regent and friend of +its third Secretary S. P. Langley, who, with his Volta Laboratory +associates made practical the phonograph, which has been called +Edison's most original invention.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Author</span>: <i>Leslie J. Newville wrote this paper while he was +attached to the office of the curator of Science and Technology in +the Smithsonian Institution's United States National Museum.</i></p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p class='dropcap'><span class="caps">The story</span> of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone has been +told and retold. How he became involved in the difficult task of making +practical phonograph records, and succeeded (in association with Charles +Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell), is not so well known.</p> + +<p>But material collected through the years by the U. S. National Museum of +the Smithsonian Institution now makes clear how Bell and two associates +took Edison's tinfoil machine and made it reproduce sound from wax +instead of tinfoil. They began their work in Washington, D. C., in 1879, +and continued until granted basic patents in 1886 for recording in wax.</p> + +<p>Preserved at the Smithsonian are some 20 pieces of experimental +apparatus, including a number of complete machines. Their first +experimental machine was sealed in a box and deposited in the +Smithsonian archives in 1881. The others were delivered by Alexander +Graham Bell to the National Museum in two lots in 1915 and 1922. Bell +was an old man by this time, busy with his aeronautical experiments in +Nova Scotia.</p> + +<p>It was not until 1947, however, that the Museum received the key to the +experimental "Graphophones," as they were called to differentiate them +from the Edison machine. In that year Mrs. Laura F. Tainter donated to +the Museum 10 bound notebooks, along with Tainter's unpublished +autobiography.<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> This material describes in detail the strange machines +and even stranger experiments which led in 1886 to a greatly improved +phonograph.</p> + +<p>Thomas A. Edison had invented the phonograph in 1877. But the fame +bestowed on Edison for this startling invention (sometimes called his +most original) was not due to its efficiency. Recording with the tinfoil +phonograph is too difficult to be practical. The tinfoil tears easily, +and even when the stylus is properly adjusted, the reproduction is +distorted and squeaky, and good for only a few playbacks. Nevertheless +young Edison, the "wizard" as he was called, had hit upon a secret of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>which men had dreamed for centuries.<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small> Immediately after this +discovery, however, he did not improve it, allegedly because of an +agreement to spend the next five years developing the New York City +electric light and power system.</p> + +<p> <a name="fig1" id="fig1"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i006.jpg" alt="Charles Sumner Tainter" /></div> +<p class="caption">Figure 1.—<span class="smcap">Charles Sumner Tainter</span> (1854-1940) from a +photograph taken in San Diego, California, 1919. (<i>Smithsonian photo 42729-A.</i>)</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Meanwhile Bell, always a scientist and experimenter at heart, after his +invention of the telephone in 1876 was looking for new worlds to +conquer. If we accept Tainter's version of the story, it was through +Gardiner Green Hubbard that Bell took up the phonograph challenge. Bell +had married Hubbard's daughter Mabel in 1879. Hubbard was then president +of the Edison Speaking Phonograph Co., and his organization, which had +purchased the Edison patent, was having trouble with its finances +because people did not like to buy a machine which seldom worked well +and proved difficult for an unskilled person to operate.</p> + +<p>In 1879 Hubbard got Bell interested in improving the machine, and it was +agreed that a laboratory should be set up in Washington. Experiments +were also to be conducted on the transmission of sound by light, and +this resulted in the selenium-cell Photophone, patented in 1881. Both +the Hubbards and the Bells decided to move to the Capital. While Bell +took his bride to Europe for an extended honeymoon, his associate +Charles Sumner Tainter, a young instrument maker, was sent on to +Washington from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to start the laboratory.<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small> +Bell's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>cousin, Chichester Bell, who had been teaching college chemistry +in London, agreed to come as the third associate. During his stay in +Europe Bell received the 50,000-franc ($10,000) Volta prize, and it was +with this money that the Washington project, the Volta Laboratory +Association,<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small> was financed.</p> + +<p> <a name="fig2" id="fig2"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i009.jpg" alt="Photographing Sound in 1884." /></div> +<p class="caption">Figure 2.—<span class="smcap">Photographing Sound in 1884.</span> A rare photograph +taken at Volta Laboratory, Washington, D. C., by J. Harris Rogers, a +friend of Bell and Tainter (<i>Smithsonian photo 44312-E</i>).</p> + +<p class="caption">A description of the procedure used is found on page 67, of Tainter's +unpublished autobiography (see <a href="#f1">footnote 1</a>). There, Tainter quotes +Chichester Bell as follows:</p> + +<p class="caption">"A jet of bichromate of potash solution, vibrated by the voice, was +directed against a glass plate immediately in front of a slit, on which +light was concentrated by means of a lens. The jet was so arranged that +the light on its way to the slit had to pass through the nappe and as +the thickness of this was constantly changing, the illumination of the +slit was also varied. By means of a lens ... an image of this slit was +thrown upon a rotating gelatine-bromide plate, on which accordingly a +record of the voice vibrations was obtained."</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Tainter's story, in his autobiography, of the establishment of the +laboratory, shows its comparative simplicity:</p> + +<p>I therefore wound up my business affairs in Cambridge, packed up all of +my tools and machines, and ... went to Washington, and after much +search, rented a vacant house on L Street, between 13th and 14th +Streets, and fitted it up for our purpose.<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small>... The Smithsonian +Institution sent us over a mail sack of scientific books from the +library of the Institution, to consult, and primed with all we could +learn ... we went to work.<small><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></small>... We were like the explorers in an +entirely unknown land, where one has to select the path that seems to be +most likely to get you to your destination, with no knowledge of what is +ahead.</p> + +<p>In conducting our work we had first to design an experimental apparatus, +then hunt about, often in Philadelphia and New York, for the materials +with which to construct it, which were usually hard to find, and finally +build the models we needed, ourselves.<small><a name="f7.1" id="f7.1" href="#f7">[7]</a></small></p> + +<p> <a name="fig3" id="fig3"></a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i011.jpg" alt="Page from Notebook" /></div> +<p class="caption">Figure 3.—<span class="smcap">Page from Notebook</span> of Charles Sumner Tainter, +describing an experiment in sound recording. The Tainter notebooks, +preserved in the U. S. National Museum, describe experiments at the +Volta Laboratory, in the 1880's. The Graphophone patents of 1886, were +the result of this research. (<i>Smithsonian photo 44312</i>.)</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The experimental machines built at the Volta Laboratory include both +disc and cylinder types, and an interesting "tape" recorder. The records +used with the machines and now in the collections of the U. S. National +Museum, are believed to be the oldest reproducible records preserved +anywhere in the world. While some are scratched and cracked, others are +still in good condition.</p> + +<p>By 1881 the Volta associates had succeeded in improving an Edison +tinfoil machine to some extent. Wax was put in the grooves of the heavy +iron cylinder, and no tinfoil was used. Rather than apply for a patent +at that time, however, they deposited the machine in a sealed box at the +Smithsonian, and specified that it was not to be opened without the +consent of two of the three men. In 1937 Tainter (<a href="#fig1">fig. 1</a>) was the only +one still living, so the box was opened with his permission.</p> + +<p>For the occasion, the heirs of Alexander Graham Bell gathered in +Washington, but Tainter was too old and too ill to come from San Diego.</p> + +<p>The sound vibrations had been indented in the wax which had been applied +to the Edison phonograph. The following is the text of the recording: +"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of +in your philosophy. I am a graphophone and my mother was a phonograph." +Remarked Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor,<small><a name="f8.1" id="f8.1" href="#f8">[8]</a></small> Bell's +daughter, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>when the box was +opened in 1937, "That is just the sort of thing father would have said. +He was always quoting from the classics."</p> + +<p> <a name="fig4" id="fig4"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i013.jpg" alt="Patent Drawings" /></div> +<p class="caption">Figure 4.—<span class="smcap">Patent Drawings</span> from U. S. patent 341214, granted May 4, +1886, to Chichester Bell and C. S. Tainter.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The method of reproduction used on the machine, however, is even more +interesting than the quotation. Rather than a stylus and diaphragm, a +jet of air under high pressure was used.</p> + +<p>"This evening about 7 P. M.," Tainter noted on July 7, 1881, "The +apparatus being ready the valve upon the top of the air cylinder was +opened slightly until a pressure of about 100 lbs. was indicated by the +gage. The phonograph cylinder was then rotated, and the sounds produced +by the escaping air could be heard, and the words understood a distance +of at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> least 8 feet from the phonograph." The point of the jet is glass, +and could be directed at a single groove.</p> + +<p> <a name="fig5" id="fig5"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i015.jpg" alt="Experimental Graphophone" /></div> +<p class="caption">Figure 5.—<span class="smcap">Experimental Graphophone</span> photographed in 1884 +at the Volta Laboratory. This is similar to one preserved at the +Smithsonian Institution. (<i>Smithsonian photo 44312-D.</i>)</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The other experimental Graphophones indicate an amazing range of +experimentation. While the method of cutting a record on wax was the one +later exploited commercially, everything else seems to have been tried +at least once.</p> + +<p>The following was noted on Wednesday, March 20, 1881: "A fountain pen is +attached to a diaphragm so as to be vibrated in a plane parallel to the +axis of a cylinder—The ink used in this pen to contain iron in a finely +divided state, and the pen caused to trace a spiral line around the +cylinder as it turned. The cylinder to be covered with a sheet of paper +upon which the record is made.... This ink ... can be rendered magnetic +by means of a permanent magnet. The sounds were to be reproduced by +simply substituting a magnet for the fountain pen...."</p> + +<p>The result of these ideas for magnetic reproduction resulted in patent +341287, granted on May 4, 1886; it deals solely with "the reproduction, +through the action of magnetism, of sounds by means of records in solid +substances."</p> + +<p> <a name="fig6" id="fig6"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i016.jpg" alt="Experimental Graphophone" /></div> +<p class="caption">Figure 6.—<span class="smcap">Another Experimental Graphophone</span>, photographed +at the Volta Laboratory in 1884. (<i>Smithsonian photo 44312-F.</i>)</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The air jet used in reproducing has already been described. Other jets, +of molten metal, wax, and water, were also tried. On Saturday, May 19, +1883, Tainter wrote (see <a href="#fig3">fig. 3</a>):</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Made the following experiment today:</p> + +<p>The cylinder of the Edison phonograph was covered with the coating +of paraffine-wax and then turned off true and smooth.</p> + +<p>A cutting style A., secured to the end of a lever B was then +adjusted over the cylinder, as shown. Lever B was pivoted at the +points C-D, and the only pressure exerted to force the style into +the wax was due to the weight of the parts.</p> + +<p>Upon the top of A was fixed a small brass disk, and immediately +over it a sensitive water jet adjusted, so that the stream of water +at its sensitive part fell upon the center of the brass disk.</p> + +<p>The Phonograph cylinder E, was rotated while words and sounds were +shouted to the support to which the water jet was attached, and a +record that was quite visible to the unaided eye was the result.</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p>The tape recorder, an unusual instrument which recorded mechanically on +a <span style="font-size: 0.8em;"><sup>3</sup></span>⁄<span style="font-size: 0.6em;">16</span>-inch strip of wax-covered paper, is one of the machines described +and illustrated in U. S. patent 341214, dated May 4, 1886 (see <a href="#fig4">fig. 4</a>). +The strip was coated by dipping it in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> solution of beeswax and +paraffine (one part white beeswax, two parts paraffine, by weight), then +scraping one side clean and allowing the other side to harden.</p> + +<p> <a name="fig7" id="fig7"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i017.jpg" alt="Plans" /></div> +<p class="caption">Figure 7.—<span class="smcap">Original Plans for a Disc Graphophone Patented +by Sumner Tainter in 1888, U. S. Patent 385886.</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>The machine of sturdy wood and metal construction, is hand powered by +means of a knob fastened to the fly wheel. From the fly-wheel shaft +power is transferred by a small friction wheel to a vertical shaft. At +the bottom of this shaft a V-pulley transfers motion by belts to +corresponding V-pulleys beneath the horizontal reels.</p> + +<p>The wax strip passes from one 8-inch reel around the periphery of a +pulley (with guide flanges) mounted above the V-pulleys on the main +vertical shaft, where it comes in contact with the recording or +reproducing stylus. It is then taken up on the other reel.</p> + +<p>The sharp recording stylus, actuated by a vibrating mica diaphragm, cuts +the wax from the strip. In reproducing, a dull, loosely mounted stylus, +attached to a rubber diaphragm, carried sounds through an ear tube to +the listener.</p> + +<p>Both recording and reproducing heads, mounted alternately on the same +two posts, could be adjusted vertically so that several records could be +cut on the same <span style="font-size: 0.8em;"><sup>3</sup></span>⁄<span style="font-size: 0.6em;">16</span>-inch strip.</p> + +<p>While this machine was never developed commercially, it is an +interesting ancestor of the modern tape recorder, which it resembles +somewhat in design. How practical it was or just why it was built we do +not know. The tape is now brittle, the heavy paper reels warped, and the +reproducing head missing. Otherwise, with some reconditioning, it could +be put into working condition.</p> + +<p>Most of the disc machines designed by the Volta associates had the disc +mounted vertically (see <a href="#fig5">figs. 5</a> and <a href="#fig6">6</a>). The explanation is that in the +early experiments, the turntable, with disc, was mounted on the shop +lathe, along with the recording and reproducing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> heads. Later, when the +complete models were built, most of them featured vertical turntables.</p> + +<p> <a name="fig8" id="fig8"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i018.jpg" alt="Page of Plans" /></div> +<p class="caption">Figure 8.—<span class="smcap">Another Page of the Plans Shown in <a href="#fig7">Figure 7</a>.</span> +The experimental Graphophone built from these plans is in the U. S. +National Museum (<i>cat. no. 287665</i>).</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>An interesting exception has a horizontal 7-inch turntable (see <a href="#fig7">figs. 7</a> and <a href="#fig8">8</a>). +This machine, although made in 1886, is a duplicate of one made +earlier but taken to Europe by Chichester Bell. Tainter was granted U. +S. patent 385886 for it on July 10, 1888.</p> + +<p>The playing arm is rigid, except for a pivoted vertical motion of 90 +degrees to allow removal of the record or a return to starting position. +While recording or playing, the record not only rotated, but moved +laterally under the stylus, which thus described a spiral, recording 150 +grooves to the inch.</p> + +<p>The Bell and Tainter records, preserved at the Smithsonian, are both of +the lateral cut and "hill-and-dale" types. Edison for many years used +the "hill-and-dale" method with both cylinder and disc records, and +Emile Berliner is credited with the invention of the lateral cut +Gramophone record in 1887. The Volta associates, however, had been +experimenting with both types, as early as 1881, as is shown by the +following quotation from Tainter:<small><a name="f9.1" id="f9.1" href="#f9">[9]</a></small></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The record on the electro-type in the Smithsonian package is of the +other form, where the vibrations are impressed <i>parallel</i> to the +surface of the recording material, as was done in the old Scott +Phonautograph of 1857, thus forming a groove of uniform depth, but +of wavy character, in which the <i>sides</i> of the groove act upon the +tracing point instead of the bottom, as is the case in the vertical +type. This form we named the zig-zag form, and referred to it in +that way in our notes. Its important advantage in guiding the +reproducing needle I first called attention to in the note on p. +9-Vol 1-Home Notes on March 29-1881, and endeavored to use it in my +early work, but encountered so much difficulty in getting a form of +reproducer that would work with the soft wax records without +tearing the groove, we used the hill and valley type of record more +often than the other.</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>In 1885, when the Volta associates were sure that they had a number of +practical inventions, they filed applications for patents. They also +began to look around for investors. After giving several demonstrations +in Washington, they gained the necessary support, and the American +Graphophone Co. was organized to manufacture and sell the machines. The +Volta Graphophone Co. was formed to control the patents.</p> + +<p>The Howe sewing machine factory at Bridgeport, Connecticut, became the +American Graphophone plant; Tainter went there to supervise the +manufacturing, and continued his inventive work for many years. This +Bridgeport plant is still in use today by a successor firm, the +Dictaphone Corporation.</p> + +<p>The work of the Volta associates laid the foundation for the successful +use of the dictating machine in business, for their wax recording +process was practical and their machines sturdy. But it was to take +several more years and the renewed work of Edison and further +developments by Berliner and many others, before the talking machine +industry really got under way and became a major factor in home +entertainment.<small><a name="f10.1" id="f10.1" href="#f10">[10]</a></small></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h4>PATENTS WHICH RESULTED FROM THE VOLTA LABORATORY ASSOCIATION</h4> +<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" summary="patents"> +<tr><td><i>Patent<br />Number</i></td><td valign="top"><i>Year</i></td><td valign="top"><i>Patent</i></td><td valign="top"><i>Inventors</i></td></tr> +<tr><td>229495</td><td>1880</td><td>Telephone call register</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>235496</td><td>1880</td><td>Photophone transmitter</td><td>A. G. Bell, C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>235497</td><td>1880</td><td>Selenium cells</td><td>A. G. Bell, C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>235590</td><td>1800</td><td>Selenium cells</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>241909</td><td>1881</td><td>Photophonic receiver</td><td>A. G. Bell, C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>243657</td><td>1881</td><td>Telephone transmitter</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>289725</td><td>1883</td><td>Electric conductor</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>336081</td><td>1886</td><td>Transmitter for electric telephone lines</td><td>C. A. Bell</td></tr> +<tr><td>336082</td><td>1886</td><td>Jet microphone for transmitting sounds by means of jets</td><td>C. A. Bell</td></tr> +<tr><td>336083</td><td>1886</td><td>Telephone transmitter</td><td>C. A. Bell</td></tr> +<tr><td>336173</td><td>1886</td><td>Telephone transmitter</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>341212</td><td>1886</td><td>Reproducing sounds from phonograph records</td><td>A. G. Bell, C. A. Bell, C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>341213</td><td>1886</td><td>Reproducing and recording sounds by radiant energy</td><td>A. G. Bell, C. A. Bell, C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>341214</td><td>1886</td><td>Recording and reproducing speech and other sounds</td><td>C. A. Bell, C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>341287</td><td>1886</td><td>Recording and reproducing sounds</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>341288</td><td>1886</td><td>Apparatus for recording and reproducing sounds</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>374133</td><td>1887</td><td>Paper cylinder for graphophonic records</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>375579</td><td>1887</td><td>Apparatus for recording and reproducing speech and other sounds</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>380535</td><td>1888</td><td>Graphophone</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>385886</td><td>1888</td><td>Graphophone</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>385887</td><td>1888</td><td>Graphophonic tablet</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>388462</td><td>1888</td><td>Machine for making paper tubes</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>392763</td><td>1888</td><td>Mounting for diaphragms for acoustical instruments</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>393190</td><td>1888</td><td>Tablet for use in graphophones</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>393191</td><td>1888</td><td>Support for graphophonic tablets</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>416969</td><td>1889</td><td>Speed regulator</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>421450</td><td>1890</td><td>Graphophone tablet</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>428646</td><td>1890</td><td>Machine for the manufacture of wax coated tablets for graphophones</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>506348</td><td>1893</td><td>Coin controlled graphophone</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>510656</td><td>1893</td><td>Reproducer for graphophones</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>670442</td><td>1901</td><td>Graphophone record duplicating machine</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr> +<tr><td>730986</td><td>1903</td><td>Graphophone</td><td>C. S. Tainter</td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p> +<h4>CONTENTS OF SMALL CHEST RECEIVED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION FROM +MRS. LAURA F. TAINTER, 1947</h4> + +<p class="hang">Books (10) containing the home notes, volumes 1 to 8 and +11 and 12, inclusive, March 1881-November 1883. (Vols, 9, 10, and +13 were burned in a laboratory fire, September 1897.)</p> + +<p class="hang">Binder containing drawings and notes for multiple record +duplicator, October 8, 1897-1908, and miscellaneous inquiries, log, +telegraph recorder, diet, home plans.</p> + +<p class="hang">Binder containing printed specifications of patents, S. Tainter, A. +G. Bell, and C. A. Bell, June 29, 1880 to June 16, 1903.</p> + +<p class="hang">Medal, Exposition Internationale d'Electricite, Paris, 1881, marked +"Tainter."</p> + +<p class="hang">Medal, Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915, Medal of +Award.</p> + +<p class="hang">Seven purple lapel rosettes (?), one with ribbon and palms, in +boxes marked "1890." Notes in newspaper clipping.</p> + +<p class="hang">Records of testimony of C. S. Tainter in various suits involving +the phonograph: Volta Graphophone Co. <i>vs.</i> Columbia Phonograph +Co., no. 14533, Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, dated +January 13, 1894; American Graphophone Co. <i>vs.</i> U. S. Phonograph +Co., U. S. Circuit Court, New Jersey, dated May 14, 1895; American +Graphophone Co. <i>vs.</i> Edw. H. Amet, U. S. Circuit Court, Northern +District, Illinois, in equity, dated February 14, 1896; American +Graphophone Co. <i>vs.</i> U. S. Phonograph Co., <i>et al.</i>, U. S. Circuit +Court, New Jersey, in equity, no date; American Graphophone Co. +<i>vs.</i> Leeds <i>et al.</i>, U. S. Circuit Court, Two District, New York, +N. Y., no date; testimony marked "Questions asked in Edison Co. +suits" (duplicate copies) no date, no citation.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>CONTENTS OF SMALL CHEST RECEIVED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION FROM +MRS. LAURA F. TAINTER, 1950</h4> + +<p class="hang">Typed manuscript—"Memoirs of Charles Sumner Tainter" (plus many +photostats of notes and articles) 4½ inches thick, pp. 1-71 to +about 1878, pp. 1 to 104 to factory at Bridgeport, some pages +missing.</p> + +<p class="hang">Box—containing handwritten notes for "memoirs" includes copies of +text of above (less photostats); copies of short biography; +agreement creating American Graphophone Co.; letter of election to +life membership in the American Association for the Advancement of +Science.</p> + +<p class="hang">Binder—exhibits of Tainter drawings in American Graphophone Co. +<i>vs.</i> Edison Phonograph Works., vol. 1, U. S. Circuit Court, New +Jersey.</p> + +<p class="hang">Folder—clippings and photostats relating to the machines deposited +in Smithsonian.</p> + +<p class="hang">Certificate of appointment "Officer de l'Instruction publique," +France, October 31, 1889, for exhibition of Graphophone, Exposition +Universelle, 1889.</p> + +<p class="hang">Framed photo of Berliner & Tainter, 1919.</p> + +<p class="hang">Photo of Tainter, 1919.</p> + +<p class="hang">Separate package containing gold medal, certificate, Panama-Pacific +Exposition, San Francisco, 1915; gold medal, certificate, +Exposition Internationale Electricite, Paris, 1881.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> Charles Sumner Tainter (1854-1940), "The talking machine and some +little known facts in connection with its early development," +unpublished manuscript in the collections of the U. S. National Museum.</p> + +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> One of the most interesting prophecies was written in 1656 by Cyrano +de Bergerac, in his <i>Comic history of the states and empires of the +Moon</i>:</p> + +<p>"'I began to study closely my books and their covers which impressed me +for their richness. One was decorated with a single diamond, more +brilliant by far than ours. The second seemed but a single pearl cleft +in twain.</p> + +<p>"'When I opened the covers, I found inside something made of metal, not +unlike our clocks, full of mysterious little springs and almost +invisible mechanisms. 'Tis a book, 'tis true, but a miraculous book, +which has no pages or letters. Indeed, 'tis a book which to enjoy the +eyes are useless; only ears suffice. When a man desires to read, then, +he surrounds this contrivance with many small tendons of every kind, +then he places the needle on the chapter to be heard and, at the same +time, there come, as from the mouth of a man or from an instrument of +music, all those clear and separate sounds which make up the Lunarians' +tongue.'" (See A. Coeuroy and G. Clarence, <i>Le phonographe</i>, Paris, +1929, p. 9, 10.)</p> + +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> Tainter retained a lifelong admiration for Alexander Graham Bell. +This is Tainter's description of their first meeting in Cambridge: "... +one day I received a visit from a very distinguished looking gentleman +with jet black hair and beard, who announced himself as Mr. A. Graham +Bell. His charm of manner and conversation attracted me greatly...." +Tainter, <i>op. cit.</i> (<a href="#f1">footnote 1</a>), p. 2.</p> + +<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> A. G. Bell apparently spent little time in the Volta Laboratory. The +Dr. Bell referred to in Tainter's notebooks is Chichester A. Bell. The +basic graphophone patent (U. S. patent 341214) was issued to C. A. Bell +and Tainter. The Tainter material reveals A. G. Bell as the man who +suggested the basic lines of research (and furnished the money), and +then allowed his associates to get the credit for many of the inventions +that resulted.</p> + +<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> Tainter, <i>op. cit.</i> (footnote 1), p. 3.</p> + +<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 5.</p> + +<p><a name="f7" id="f7" href="#f7.1">[7]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 30.</p> + +<p><a name="f8" id="f8" href="#f8.1">[8]</a> As quoted by <i>The Washington Herald</i>, October 28, 1937.</p> + +<p><a name="f9" id="f9" href="#f9.1">[9]</a> Tainter, <i>op. cit.</i> (footnote 1), pp. 28, 29.</p> + +<p><a name="f10" id="f10" href="#f10.1">[10]</a> The basic distinction between the first Edison patent, and the Bell +and Tainter patent of 1886 was the method of recording. Edison's method +was to <i>indent</i> the sound waves on a piece of tin-foil (wax was included +as a recording material in his English patent); the Bell and Tainter +improvement called for <i>cutting</i> or "<i>engraving</i>" the sound waves into a +wax record, with a sharp recording stylus.</p> + +<p>The strength of Bell and Tainter patent is indicated by the following +excerpt from a letter written by a Washington patent attorney, S. T. +Cameron, who was a member of the law firm which carried on litigation +for the American Graphophone Co. The letter is dated December 8, 1914, +and is addressed to George C. Maynard, Curator of Mechanical Technology, +U. S. National Museum: "Subsequent to the issuance of the Bell and +Tainter patent No. 341214, Edison announced that he would shortly +produce his 'new phonograph' which, when it appeared, was in fact +nothing but the Bell and Tainter record set forth in their patent +341214, being a record cut or engraved in wax or wax-like material, +although Edison always insisted on calling this record an 'indented' +record, doubtless because his original tin-foil record was an 'indented' +record. Edison was compelled to acknowledge that his 'new phonograph' +was an infringement of the Bell and Tainter patent 341214, and took out +a license under the Bell and Tainter patent and made his records under +that patent as the result of that license."</p> + + +<p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p>Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p>Additional spacing after some of the quotations is intentional +to indicate both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as +presented in the original text.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONOGRAPH AT ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S VOLTA LABORATORY***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 30112-h.txt or 30112-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/1/1/30112">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/1/1/30112</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Newville + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory + Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5, (pages 69-79) + + +Author: Leslie J. Newville + + + +Release Date: September 27, 2009 [eBook #30112] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONOGRAPH AT +ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S VOLTA LABORATORY*** + + +E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Stephanie Eason, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 30112-h.htm or 30112-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30112/30112-h/30112-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30112/30112-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Passages in italics are enclosed between underscores + (_italics_). + + Additional spacing after some of the quotations is intentional + to indicate both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a + new paragraph as presented in the original text. + + + + + +Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, +United States National Museum Bulletin 218, +Paper 5, (pages 69-79) + +DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONOGRAPH AT +ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S VOLTA LABORATORY + +LESLIE J. NEWVILLE + + +DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONOGRAPH +AT ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S +VOLTA LABORATORY + +by + +LESLIE J. NEWVILLE + + + + + + + _The fame of Thomas A. Edison rests most securely on his genius for + making practical application of the ideas of others. However, it + was Alexander Graham Bell, long a Smithsonian Regent and friend of + its third Secretary S. P. Langley, who, with his Volta Laboratory + associates made practical the phonograph, which has been called + Edison's most original invention._ + + THE AUTHOR: _Leslie J. Newville wrote this paper while he was + attached to the office of the curator of Science and Technology in + the Smithsonian Institution's United States National Museum._ + + +The story of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone has been +told and retold. How he became involved in the difficult task of making +practical phonograph records, and succeeded (in association with Charles +Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell), is not so well known. + +But material collected through the years by the U. S. National Museum of +the Smithsonian Institution now makes clear how Bell and two associates +took Edison's tinfoil machine and made it reproduce sound from wax +instead of tinfoil. They began their work in Washington, D. C., in 1879, +and continued until granted basic patents in 1886 for recording in wax. + +Preserved at the Smithsonian are some 20 pieces of experimental +apparatus, including a number of complete machines. Their first +experimental machine was sealed in a box and deposited in the +Smithsonian archives in 1881. The others were delivered by Alexander +Graham Bell to the National Museum in two lots in 1915 and 1922. Bell +was an old man by this time, busy with his aeronautical experiments in +Nova Scotia. + +It was not until 1947, however, that the Museum received the key to the +experimental "Graphophones," as they were called to differentiate them +from the Edison machine. In that year Mrs. Laura F. Tainter donated to +the Museum 10 bound notebooks, along with Tainter's unpublished +autobiography.[1] This material describes in detail the strange machines +and even stranger experiments which led in 1886 to a greatly improved +phonograph. + +Thomas A. Edison had invented the phonograph in 1877. But the fame +bestowed on Edison for this startling invention (sometimes called his +most original) was not due to its efficiency. Recording with the tinfoil +phonograph is too difficult to be practical. The tinfoil tears easily, +and even when the stylus is properly adjusted, the reproduction is +distorted and squeaky, and good for only a few playbacks. Nevertheless +young Edison, the "wizard" as he was called, had hit upon a secret of +which men had dreamed for centuries.[2] Immediately after this +discovery, however, he did not improve it, allegedly because of an +agreement to spend the next five years developing the New York City +electric light and power system. + + +[Illustration: Figure 1.--CHARLES SUMNER TAINTER (1854-1940) from a +photograph taken in San Diego, California, 1919. (_Smithsonian photo +42729-A._)] + + +Meanwhile Bell, always a scientist and experimenter at heart, after his +invention of the telephone in 1876 was looking for new worlds to +conquer. If we accept Tainter's version of the story, it was through +Gardiner Green Hubbard that Bell took up the phonograph challenge. Bell +had married Hubbard's daughter Mabel in 1879. Hubbard was then president +of the Edison Speaking Phonograph Co., and his organization, which had +purchased the Edison patent, was having trouble with its finances +because people did not like to buy a machine which seldom worked well +and proved difficult for an unskilled person to operate. + +In 1879 Hubbard got Bell interested in improving the machine, and it was +agreed that a laboratory should be set up in Washington. Experiments +were also to be conducted on the transmission of sound by light, and +this resulted in the selenium-cell Photophone, patented in 1881. Both +the Hubbards and the Bells decided to move to the Capital. While Bell +took his bride to Europe for an extended honeymoon, his associate +Charles Sumner Tainter, a young instrument maker, was sent on to +Washington from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to start the laboratory.[3] +Bell's cousin, Chichester Bell, who had been teaching college chemistry +in London, agreed to come as the third associate. During his stay in +Europe Bell received the 50,000-franc ($10,000) Volta prize, and it was +with this money that the Washington project, the Volta Laboratory +Association,[4] was financed. + + +[Illustration: Figure 2.--PHOTOGRAPHING SOUND IN 1884. A rare photograph +taken at Volta Laboratory, Washington, D. C., by J. Harris Rogers, a +friend of Bell and Tainter (_Smithsonian photo 44312-E_). + +A description of the procedure used is found on page 67, of Tainter's +unpublished autobiography (see footnote 1). There, Tainter quotes +Chichester Bell as follows: + +"A jet of bichromate of potash solution, vibrated by the voice, was +directed against a glass plate immediately in front of a slit, on which +light was concentrated by means of a lens. The jet was so arranged that +the light on its way to the slit had to pass through the nappe and as +the thickness of this was constantly changing, the illumination of the +slit was also varied. By means of a lens ... an image of this slit was +thrown upon a rotating gelatine-bromide plate, on which accordingly a +record of the voice vibrations was obtained."] + + +Tainter's story, in his autobiography, of the establishment of the +laboratory, shows its comparative simplicity: + +I therefore wound up my business affairs in Cambridge, packed up all of +my tools and machines, and ... went to Washington, and after much +search, rented a vacant house on L Street, between 13th and 14th +Streets, and fitted it up for our purpose.[5]... The Smithsonian +Institution sent us over a mail sack of scientific books from the +library of the Institution, to consult, and primed with all we could +learn ... we went to work.[6]... We were like the explorers in an +entirely unknown land, where one has to select the path that seems to be +most likely to get you to your destination, with no knowledge of what is +ahead. + +In conducting our work we had first to design an experimental apparatus, +then hunt about, often in Philadelphia and New York, for the materials +with which to construct it, which were usually hard to find, and finally +build the models we needed, ourselves.[7] + + +[Illustration: Figure 3.--PAGE FROM NOTEBOOK of Charles Sumner Tainter, +describing an experiment in sound recording. The Tainter notebooks, +preserved in the U. S. National Museum, describe experiments at the +Volta Laboratory, in the 1880's. The Graphophone patents of 1886, were +the result of this research. (_Smithsonian photo 44312_.)] + + +The experimental machines built at the Volta Laboratory include both +disc and cylinder types, and an interesting "tape" recorder. The records +used with the machines and now in the collections of the U. S. National +Museum, are believed to be the oldest reproducible records preserved +anywhere in the world. While some are scratched and cracked, others are +still in good condition. + +By 1881 the Volta associates had succeeded in improving an Edison +tinfoil machine to some extent. Wax was put in the grooves of the heavy +iron cylinder, and no tinfoil was used. Rather than apply for a patent +at that time, however, they deposited the machine in a sealed box at the +Smithsonian, and specified that it was not to be opened without the +consent of two of the three men. In 1937 Tainter (fig. 1) was the only +one still living, so the box was opened with his permission. + +For the occasion, the heirs of Alexander Graham Bell gathered in +Washington, but Tainter was too old and too ill to come from San Diego. + +The sound vibrations had been indented in the wax which had been applied +to the Edison phonograph. The following is the text of the recording: +"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of +in your philosophy. I am a graphophone and my mother was a phonograph." +Remarked Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor,[8] Bell's daughter, when the box was +opened in 1937, "That is just the sort of thing father would have said. +He was always quoting from the classics." + + +[Figure 4.--PATENT DRAWINGS from U. S. patent 341214, granted May 4, +1886, to Chichester Bell and C. S. Tainter.] + + +The method of reproduction used on the machine, however, is even more +interesting than the quotation. Rather than a stylus and diaphragm, a +jet of air under high pressure was used. + +"This evening about 7 P. M.," Tainter noted on July 7, 1881, "The +apparatus being ready the valve upon the top of the air cylinder was +opened slightly until a pressure of about 100 lbs. was indicated by the +gage. The phonograph cylinder was then rotated, and the sounds produced +by the escaping air could be heard, and the words understood a distance +of at least 8 feet from the phonograph." The point of the jet is glass, +and could be directed at a single groove. + + +[Illustration: Figure 5.--EXPERIMENTAL GRAPHOPHONE photographed in 1884 +at the Volta Laboratory. This is similar to one preserved at the +Smithsonian Institution. (_Smithsonian photo 44312-D._)] + + +The other experimental Graphophones indicate an amazing range of +experimentation. While the method of cutting a record on wax was the one +later exploited commercially, everything else seems to have been tried +at least once. + +The following was noted on Wednesday, March 20, 1881: "A fountain pen is +attached to a diaphragm so as to be vibrated in a plane parallel to the +axis of a cylinder--The ink used in this pen to contain iron in a finely +divided state, and the pen caused to trace a spiral line around the +cylinder as it turned. The cylinder to be covered with a sheet of paper +upon which the record is made.... This ink ... can be rendered magnetic +by means of a permanent magnet. The sounds were to be reproduced by +simply substituting a magnet for the fountain pen...." + +The result of these ideas for magnetic reproduction resulted in patent +341287, granted on May 4, 1886; it deals solely with "the reproduction, +through the action of magnetism, of sounds by means of records in solid +substances." + + +[Illustration: Figure 6.--ANOTHER EXPERIMENTAL GRAPHOPHONE, photographed +at the Volta Laboratory in 1884. (_Smithsonian photo 44312-F._)] + + +The air jet used in reproducing has already been described. Other jets, +of molten metal, wax, and water, were also tried. On Saturday, May 19, +1883, Tainter wrote (see fig. 3): + + Made the following experiment today: + + The cylinder of the Edison phonograph was covered with the coating + of paraffine-wax and then turned off true and smooth. + + A cutting style A., secured to the end of a lever B was then + adjusted over the cylinder, as shown. Lever B was pivoted at the + points C-D, and the only pressure exerted to force the style into + the wax was due to the weight of the parts. + + Upon the top of A was fixed a small brass disk, and immediately + over it a sensitive water jet adjusted, so that the stream of water + at its sensitive part fell upon the center of the brass disk. + + The Phonograph cylinder E, was rotated while words and sounds were + shouted to the support to which the water jet was attached, and a + record that was quite visible to the unaided eye was the result. + + +The tape recorder, an unusual instrument which recorded mechanically on +a 3/16-inch strip of wax-covered paper, is one of the machines described +and illustrated in U. S. patent 341214, dated May 4, 1886 (see fig. 4). +The strip was coated by dipping it in a solution of beeswax and +paraffine (one part white beeswax, two parts paraffine, by weight), then +scraping one side clean and allowing the other side to harden. + + +[Illustration: Figure 7.--ORIGINAL PLANS FOR A DISC GRAPHOPHONE PATENTED +BY SUMNER TAINTER IN 1888, U. S. PATENT 385886.] + + +The machine of sturdy wood and metal construction, is hand powered by +means of a knob fastened to the fly wheel. From the fly-wheel shaft +power is transferred by a small friction wheel to a vertical shaft. At +the bottom of this shaft a V-pulley transfers motion by belts to +corresponding V-pulleys beneath the horizontal reels. + +The wax strip passes from one 8-inch reel around the periphery of a +pulley (with guide flanges) mounted above the V-pulleys on the main +vertical shaft, where it comes in contact with the recording or +reproducing stylus. It is then taken up on the other reel. + +The sharp recording stylus, actuated by a vibrating mica diaphragm, cuts +the wax from the strip. In reproducing, a dull, loosely mounted stylus, +attached to a rubber diaphragm, carried sounds through an ear tube to +the listener. + +Both recording and reproducing heads, mounted alternately on the same +two posts, could be adjusted vertically so that several records could be +cut on the same 3/16-inch strip. + +While this machine was never developed commercially, it is an +interesting ancestor of the modern tape recorder, which it resembles +somewhat in design. How practical it was or just why it was built we do +not know. The tape is now brittle, the heavy paper reels warped, and the +reproducing head missing. Otherwise, with some reconditioning, it could +be put into working condition. + +Most of the disc machines designed by the Volta associates had the disc +mounted vertically (see figs. 5 and 6). The explanation is that in the +early experiments, the turntable, with disc, was mounted on the shop +lathe, along with the recording and reproducing heads. Later, when the +complete models were built, most of them featured vertical turntables. + + +[Illustration: Figure 8.--ANOTHER PAGE OF THE PLANS SHOWN IN FIGURE 7. +The experimental Graphophone built from these plans is in the U. S. +National Museum (_cat. no. 287665_).] + + +An interesting exception has a horizontal 7-inch turntable (see figs. 7 +and 8). This machine, although made in 1886, is a duplicate of one made +earlier but taken to Europe by Chichester Bell. Tainter was granted U. +S. patent 385886 for it on July 10, 1888. + +The playing arm is rigid, except for a pivoted vertical motion of 90 +degrees to allow removal of the record or a return to starting position. +While recording or playing, the record not only rotated, but moved +laterally under the stylus, which thus described a spiral, recording 150 +grooves to the inch. + +The Bell and Tainter records, preserved at the Smithsonian, are both of +the lateral cut and "hill-and-dale" types. Edison for many years used +the "hill-and-dale" method with both cylinder and disc records, and +Emile Berliner is credited with the invention of the lateral cut +Gramophone record in 1887. The Volta associates, however, had been +experimenting with both types, as early as 1881, as is shown by the +following quotation from Tainter:[9] + + The record on the electro-type in the Smithsonian package is of the + other form, where the vibrations are impressed _parallel_ to the + surface of the recording material, as was done in the old Scott + Phonautograph of 1857, thus forming a groove of uniform depth, but + of wavy character, in which the _sides_ of the groove act upon the + tracing point instead of the bottom, as is the case in the vertical + type. This form we named the zig-zag form, and referred to it in + that way in our notes. Its important advantage in guiding the + reproducing needle I first called attention to in the note on p. + 9-Vol 1-Home Notes on March 29-1881, and endeavored to use it in my + early work, but encountered so much difficulty in getting a form of + reproducer that would work with the soft wax records without + tearing the groove, we used the hill and valley type of record more + often than the other. + + +In 1885, when the Volta associates were sure that they had a number of +practical inventions, they filed applications for patents. They also +began to look around for investors. After giving several demonstrations +in Washington, they gained the necessary support, and the American +Graphophone Co. was organized to manufacture and sell the machines. The +Volta Graphophone Co. was formed to control the patents. + +The Howe sewing machine factory at Bridgeport, Connecticut, became the +American Graphophone plant; Tainter went there to supervise the +manufacturing, and continued his inventive work for many years. This +Bridgeport plant is still in use today by a successor firm, the +Dictaphone Corporation. + +The work of the Volta associates laid the foundation for the successful +use of the dictating machine in business, for their wax recording +process was practical and their machines sturdy. But it was to take +several more years and the renewed work of Edison and further +developments by Berliner and many others, before the talking machine +industry really got under way and became a major factor in home +entertainment.[10] + + +PATENTS WHICH RESULTED FROM THE VOLTA LABORATORY ASSOCIATION + + _Patent + Number_ _Year_ _Patent_ _Inventors_ + 229495 1880 Telephone call register C. S. Tainter + 235496 1880 Photophone transmitter A. G. Bell, + C. S. Tainter + 235497 1880 Selenium cells A. G. Bell, + C. S. Tainter + 235590 1800 Selenium cells C. S. Tainter + 241909 1881 Photophonic receiver A. G. Bell, + C. S. Tainter + 243657 1881 Telephone transmitter C. S. Tainter + 289725 1883 Electric conductor C. S. Tainter + 336081 1886 Transmitter for electric C. A. Bell + telephone lines + 336082 1886 Jet microphone for C. A. Bell + transmitting sounds + by means of jets + 336083 1886 Telephone transmitter C. A. Bell + 336173 1886 Telephone transmitter C. S. Tainter + 341212 1886 Reproducing sounds A. G. Bell, + from phonograph C. A. Bell, + records C. S. Tainter + 341213 1886 Reproducing and A. G. Bell, + recording sounds by C. A. Bell, + radiant energy C. S. Tainter + 341214 1886 Recording and reproducing C. A. Bell, + speech and other sounds C. S. Tainter + 341287 1886 Recording and reproducing C. S. Tainter + sounds + 341288 1886 Apparatus for recording C. S. Tainter + and reproducing sounds + 374133 1887 Paper cylinder for C. S. Tainter + graphophonic records + 375579 1887 Apparatus for recording C. S. Tainter + and reproducing speech + and other sounds + 380535 1888 Graphophone C. S. Tainter + 385886 1888 Graphophone C. S. Tainter + 385887 1888 Graphophonic tablet C. S. Tainter + 388462 1888 Machine for making C. S. Tainter + paper tubes + 392763 1888 Mounting for diaphragms C. S. Tainter + for acoustical + instruments + 393190 1888 Tablet for use in C. S. Tainter + graphophones + 393191 1888 Support for graphophonic C. S. Tainter + tablets + 416969 1889 Speed regulator C. S. Tainter + 421450 1890 Graphophone tablet C. S. Tainter + 428646 1890 Machine for the manufacture C. S. Tainter + of wax coated tablets for + graphophones + 506348 1893 Coin controlled graphophone C. S. Tainter + 510656 1893 Reproducer for graphophones C. S. Tainter + 670442 1901 Graphophone record C. S. Tainter + duplicating machine + 730986 1903 Graphophone C. S. Tainter + +CONTENTS OF SMALL CHEST RECEIVED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION FROM +MRS. LAURA F. TAINTER, 1947 + +Books (10) containing the home notes, volumes 1 to 8 and 11 and 12, + inclusive, March 1881-November 1883. (Vols, 9, 10, and 13 were burned + in a laboratory fire, September 1897.) + +Binder containing drawings and notes for multiple record duplicator, + October 8, 1897-1908, and miscellaneous inquiries, log, telegraph + recorder, diet, home plans. + +Binder containing printed specifications of patents, S. Tainter, A. G. + Bell, and C. A. Bell, June 29, 1880 to June 16, 1903. + +Medal, Exposition Internationale d'Electricite, Paris, 1881, marked + "Tainter." + +Medal, Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915, Medal of Award. + +Seven purple lapel rosettes (?), one with ribbon and palms, in boxes + marked "1890." Notes in newspaper clipping. + +Records of testimony of C. S. Tainter in various suits involving the + phonograph: Volta Graphophone Co. _vs._ Columbia Phonograph Co., + no. 14533, Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, dated January 13, + 1894; American Graphophone Co. _vs._ U. S. Phonograph Co., U. S. + Circuit Court, New Jersey, dated May 14, 1895; American Graphophone Co. + _vs._ Edw. H. Amet, U. S. Circuit Court, Northern District, Illinois, + in equity, dated February 14, 1896; American Graphophone Co. _vs._ + U. S. Phonograph Co., _et al._, U. S. Circuit Court, New Jersey, in + equity, no date; American Graphophone Co. _vs._ Leeds _et al._, U. S. + Circuit Court, Two District, New York, N. Y., no date; testimony marked + "Questions asked in Edison Co. suits" (duplicate copies) no date, no + citation. + +CONTENTS OF SMALL CHEST RECEIVED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION FROM +MRS. LAURA F. TAINTER, 1950 + +Typed manuscript--"Memoirs of Charles Sumner Tainter" (plus many + photostats of notes and articles) 4-1/2 inches thick, pp. 1-71 to + about 1878, pp. 1 to 104 to factory at Bridgeport, some pages missing. + +Box--containing handwritten notes for "memoirs" includes copies of text + of above (less photostats); copies of short biography; agreement + creating American Graphophone Co.; letter of election to life + membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. + +Binder--exhibits of Tainter drawings in American Graphophone Co. _vs._ + Edison Phonograph Works., vol. 1, U. S. Circuit Court, New Jersey. + +Folder--clippings and photostats relating to the machines deposited in + Smithsonian. + +Certificate of appointment "Officer de l'Instruction publique," France, + October 31, 1889, for exhibition of Graphophone, Exposition + Universelle, 1889. + +Framed photo of Berliner & Tainter, 1919. + +Photo of Tainter, 1919. + +Separate package containing gold medal, certificate, Panama-Pacific + Exposition, San Francisco, 1915; gold medal, certificate, Exposition + Internationale Electricite, Paris, 1881. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Charles Sumner Tainter (1854-1940), "The talking machine and some +little known facts in connection with its early development," +unpublished manuscript in the collections of the U. S. National Museum. + +[2] One of the most interesting prophecies was written in 1656 by Cyrano +de Bergerac, in his _Comic history of the states and empires of the +Moon_: + +"'I began to study closely my books and their covers which impressed me +for their richness. One was decorated with a single diamond, more +brilliant by far than ours. The second seemed but a single pearl cleft +in twain. + +"'When I opened the covers, I found inside something made of metal, not +unlike our clocks, full of mysterious little springs and almost +invisible mechanisms. 'Tis a book, 'tis true, but a miraculous book, +which has no pages or letters. Indeed, 'tis a book which to enjoy the +eyes are useless; only ears suffice. When a man desires to read, then, +he surrounds this contrivance with many small tendons of every kind, +then he places the needle on the chapter to be heard and, at the same +time, there come, as from the mouth of a man or from an instrument of +music, all those clear and separate sounds which make up the Lunarians' +tongue.'" (See A. Coeuroy and G. Clarence, _Le phonographe_, Paris, +1929, p. 9, 10.) + +[3] Tainter retained a lifelong admiration for Alexander Graham Bell. +This is Tainter's description of their first meeting in Cambridge: "... +one day I received a visit from a very distinguished looking gentleman +with jet black hair and beard, who announced himself as Mr. A. Graham +Bell. His charm of manner and conversation attracted me greatly...." +Tainter, _op. cit._ (footnote 1), p. 2. + +[4] A. G. Bell apparently spent little time in the Volta Laboratory. The +Dr. Bell referred to in Tainter's notebooks is Chichester A. Bell. The +basic graphophone patent (U. S. patent 341214) was issued to C. A. Bell +and Tainter. The Tainter material reveals A. G. Bell as the man who +suggested the basic lines of research (and furnished the money), and +then allowed his associates to get the credit for many of the inventions +that resulted. + +[5] Tainter, _op. cit._ (footnote 1), p. 3. + +[6] _Ibid._, p. 5. + +[7] _Ibid._, p. 30. + +[8] As quoted by _The Washington Herald_, October 28, 1937. + +[9] Tainter, _op. cit._ (footnote 1), pp. 28, 29. + +[10] The basic distinction between the first Edison patent, and the Bell +and Tainter patent of 1886 was the method of recording. Edison's method +was to _indent_ the sound waves on a piece of tin-foil (wax was included +as a recording material in his English patent); the Bell and Tainter +improvement called for _cutting_ or "_engraving_" the sound waves into a +wax record, with a sharp recording stylus. + +The strength of Bell and Tainter patent is indicated by the following +excerpt from a letter written by a Washington patent attorney, S. T. +Cameron, who was a member of the law firm which carried on litigation +for the American Graphophone Co. The letter is dated December 8, 1914, +and is addressed to George C. Maynard, Curator of Mechanical Technology, +U. S. National Museum: "Subsequent to the issuance of the Bell and +Tainter patent No. 341214, Edison announced that he would shortly +produce his 'new phonograph' which, when it appeared, was in fact +nothing but the Bell and Tainter record set forth in their patent +341214, being a record cut or engraved in wax or wax-like material, +although Edison always insisted on calling this record an 'indented' +record, doubtless because his original tin-foil record was an 'indented' +record. Edison was compelled to acknowledge that his 'new phonograph' +was an infringement of the Bell and Tainter patent 341214, and took out +a license under the Bell and Tainter patent and made his records under +that patent as the result of that license." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONOGRAPH AT +ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S VOLTA LABORATORY*** + + +******* This file should be named 30112.txt or 30112.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/1/1/30112 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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