Edison Standard Phonograph
Thomas Edison was not only a famous inventor but also a savvy businessman. While trying to create an “answering machine” to record phone messages, he invented the tinfoil phonograph, the earliest machine to record sound. Other inventors experimented with sound reproduction, including Alexander Graham Bell, who pioneered the idea of using wax cylinders instead of tinfoil. Edison, however, improved upon this idea and was able to bring phonographs to the masses in the late 1890s by streamlining the technology and making it more affordable. His Edison Phonograph Company had the market cornered on wax cylinder phonographs until record phonographs overtook them in the 1910s.
This phonograph may have been given to the Museum by early General Merchandise store owner William Mercill. It is a Model B or C with a Model C reproducer and dates from about 1902-1905. The record on it is 9228, “I Love to Tell the Story,” a male duet sung by Harry Anthony and James F. Harrison. It dates from 1906. The record is unfortunately cracked due to the fragility of wax cylinders. It was probably kept on the cylinder for storage and cracked due to temperature fluctuations. You can listen to what the record would have sounded like here at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library, which has an amazing online archive of wax cylinder recordings. JHHSM wax cylinders cannot be played because of their delicacy but several are available to listen to at the above archive. See our list of wax cylinders here.
In addition to this phonograph, JHHSM also has a variety of other phonographs, including two other wax cylinder phonographs. If you’d like more information, contact [email protected].