Thomas A. Edison and the Phonograph

     Thomas A. Edison was an american inventor born in 1847 and during the Technical Revolution one of the great inventors who revolutionaized Communications. Edison worked on trains and railroad stations from a very young age and mastered the telegraph and Morse code by the age of 15.

     Among his many inventions the phonograph is a very important one that was invented with the purpose of playing back recorded telegraph messages through indentations on paper tape, which could later be sent over the telegraph repeatedly. This invention led him to relieve that a telephone message could also be recorded, and by speaking into a mouthpiece the vibrations were recorded onto a metal cilinder that would later play them back. His invention was a succes and was mentioned in several New York newspapers at the time.

     Thanks to this invention The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company was established in 1878, and brought great financial and public succes to Edison. However, he abandoned further research on the machine for many years to work on the incandescente lightbulb and Alexander Graham Bell continued thus winning the acclaimed Volta prize for the Telephone.

     Thomas A. Edison was one of the great american inventors who helped shape life all around the World and thanks to his inventions life periodically changed during the Industrial Revolution.

Sources:

The History of the Edison Cylinder Phonograph  

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edcyldr.html

The Inventions of Thomas Edison

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm

Antique Edison Phonographs- A Beginners Guide

http://www.intertique.com/EdisonPhonographTutorial.html

Thomas Edison

http://www.officemuseum.com/dictating_machines.htm 

written by....Sara A.