History of Recorded Sound - Invention of the Gramophone PDF

History of Recorded Sound- Invention of the Gramophone MUSC1032 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES AT MONA FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND EDUCATION INSTITUTE OF CARIBBEAN STUDIES  History of Recorded Sound - 1857, France - Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented the Phonautogr...

History of Recorded Sound- Invention of the Gramophone MUSC1032 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES AT MONA FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND EDUCATION INSTITUTE OF CARIBBEAN STUDIES  History of Recorded Sound - 1857, France - Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented the Phonautograph, the earlist know device for recording sound. His concept was to “photograph the word” and free himself from the pen  History of Recorded Sound - His invention tried to mimic the human ear, with a horn and membrane which converted the vibrations to a stylus that etched marking on paper covered in lampblack (black pigment like soot made from burning oil) - He never intended playback, but was hoping to figure out how to “read” the markings…Which unfortunately he never did. - However in 2008 researches used modern technology to decipher a Phonautograph recording in 1860 of a human voice singing the French folk song “Au Clair de Lune” (By the light of the moon) which pre-dates Edison’s 1877 recording of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.  History of Recorded Sound - 1874 - Alexander Graham Bell and Clarence Blake built a machine which an actual excised Human ear, with the intention to vibrate a stylus and make etchings, the intention being to teach the deaf.  History of Recorded Sound - 1877 – Thomas Edison was working on which a automatic telegraph receiver which used a metal stylus to mark chemically-treated paper, which then could be run through a typewriter-like device. It was capable of recording up to 1,000 words a minute, which made it possible to send long messages quickly. - Edison conceived from this to make a unit that could record and store the human voice, replacing the paper with a tin foil cylinder. History of Recorded Sound  History of Recorded Sound - 1879 - Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter worked to improve Edison’s phonograph, replacing the tin foil cylinder which was too fragile with a wax cylinder. - The initial machine was made in 1881 and was called a Graphophone. The patent was granted in 1886 to Alexander’s cousin Chichester Bell and Tainter.  History of Recorded Sound - 1892 – Thomas Edison endeavored to improve his original Gramophone had with some slight adjustments, he purchased a license under Bell’s patent to sell his improved design.  History of Recorded Sound - 1896– Thomas Edison forms the National Phonograph Company and subsequently Edison Records, and continues to improve on his wax cylinder design. His Son Charles Edison takes over the company from 1927- 1957. -They become a full fledged recording and manufacturing company selling wax cylinders to companies like Columbia records  History of Recorded Sound - 1887 – German-American Emile Berliner gets a patent for his version of the Gramophone but replaces the cylinder with the stylus tracing a line instead on a coating of wax on a zinc disc. - The disc could be then be acidized and the metal would be a playable groove which allowed the disc to be molded and then stamped for duplication.  History of Recorded Sound 1890- Berliner gives away the exclusive sales rights in the U.S. to Frank Seaman (who marketed the product under the name “Zonophone”), but after a series of disagreements he was subsequently barred from selling his own products and then relocated to Montreal, Canada. 1901 – Meanwhile the Engineer named Eldridge R. Johnson , who had helped Berliner to develop a more efficient wind-up spring motor for the Gramophone, through some legal maneuvering managed to retain some aspects of the patent and founded a company called the Victor Talking Machine Company. The product is dubbed the “Victrola.” 1926- Johnson dells his controlling interest in the company to a banking firm who eventually sell the company to RCA (Radio Corporation of America) in 1929, forming the label RCA Victor. END