LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The fourth grade classes of Coyote Valley Elementary School were recent guests of the curator of the Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum, Antone Pierucci, assistant curator Whitney Petrey, and Pierucci's energetic staff.
Among the many interesting things we learned was that way before iPods delivered music to our ears, there was the Edison Home Phonograph.
The museum's machine is a circa 1906 version.
The museum document states, “Thomas Alva Edison invented the phonograph record machine in 1877. Recordings were on cylindrical tubes which rotated on a shaft and moved the cylinder along a rigid stylus. This machine was of limited use because of its short, 4-minute recording capability and general set-up of the player.”
After doing a little digging around on the Library of Congress' Web site, I found that the Edison Home Phonograph came into being due to some of his other inventions; namely the telephone and telegraph.
In a series of serendipitous events, Edison had been diligently toiling over a device that would transcribe the messages received from the telegraph machine he invented. His hypothesis was that telephone messages could be heard in a comparable way.
First, he used a metal tube, wrapped in tin foil. Next he devised a way for his “diaphragm-and-needle units” to function as recording and playback devices. Sound vibrations created groves in the cylinders via the recording needle.
On the Web site, www.antiquephono.org it is stated that Edison's Home Phonograph was a definite boon to those in the mid-income range in the 19th and beginning 20th centuries. The machine was sturdy and reliable and hence, proved popular due to these features.
Thomas Edison hoped that the uses for his machine would go farther than mere music appreciation. He thought it was feasible in the future for his machine to be used for dictation, speaking books for the blind, speech lessons, teacher's lesson plans, musical toys and more!
Mr. Edison was truly ahead of his time.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.
Lake County Time Capsule: The 1906 Edison Home Phonograph
- Kathleen Scavone
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