Today, the Edison Commemorative Silver Dollar Coin remembers his invention and its patent of 138 years ago.
Filed in December 1877, the Patent Office awarded Edison Patent Number 200,521 on February 19, 1878 for his “Phonograph or Speaking Machines.”
In Edison: His Life and Inventions, Volume 1, published in 1910, Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin included commentary about the phonograph.
An excerpt:
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Mr. Edison’s own account of the invention of the phonograph is intensely interesting.
“I was experimenting,” he says, “on an automatic method of recording telegraph messages on a disk of paper laid on a revolving platen, exactly the same as the disk talking-machine of to-day.
“The platen had a spiral groove on its surface, like the disk. Over this was placed a circular disk of paper; an electromagnet with the embossing point connected to an arm travelled over the disk; and any signals given through the magnets were embossed on the disk of paper.
“If this disk was removed from the machine and put on a similar machine provided with a contact point, the embossed record would cause the signals to be repeated into another wire.
“The ordinary speed of telegraphic signals is thirty-five to forty words a minute; but with this machine several hundred words were possible.
“From my experiments on the telephone I knew of the power of a diaphragm to take up sound vibrations, as I had made a little toy which, when you recited loudly in the funnel, would work a pawl connected to the diaphragm; and this engaging a ratchet- wheel served to give continuous rotation to a pulley.
“This pulley was connected by a cord to a little paper toy representing a man sawing wood. Hence, if one shouted: ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ etc., the paper man would start sawing wood.
“I reached the conclusion that if I could record the movements of the diaphragm properly, I could cause such record to reproduce the original movements imparted to the diaphragm by the voice, and thus succeed in recording and reproducing the human voice.
“Instead of using a disk I designed a little machine using a cylinder provided with grooves around the surface. Over this was to be placed tinfoil, which easily received and recorded the movements of the diaphragm.
“A sketch was made, and the piece-work price, $18, was marked on the sketch.
“I was in the habit of marking the price I would pay on each sketch.
“If the workman lost, I would pay his regular wages; if he made more than the wages, he kept it.
“The workman who got the sketch was John Kruesi. I didn’t have much faith that it would work, expecting that I might possibly hear a word or so that would give hope of a future for the idea.
“Kruesi, when he had nearly finished it, asked what it was for. I told him I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talk back.
“He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil was put on; I then shouted ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ etc. I adjusted the reproducer, and the machine reproduced it perfectly.
“I was never so taken aback in my life. Everybody was astonished.
“I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experience proved that there were great drawbacks found generally before they could be got commercial; but here was something there was no doubt of.”
No wonder that honest John Kruesi, as he stood and listened to the marvelous performance of the simple little machine he had himself just finished, ejaculated in an awe-stricken tone: “Mein Gott im Himmel!”
And yet he had already seen Edison do a few clever things. No wonder they sat up all night fixing and adjusting it so as to get better and better results — reciting and singing, trying each other’s voices, and then listening with involuntary awe as the words came back again and again, just as long as they were willing to revolve the little cylinder with its dotted spiral indentations in the tinfoil under the vibrating stylus of the reproducing diaphragm.
It took a little time to acquire the knack of turning the crank steadily while leaning over the recorder to talk into the machine; and there was some deftness required also in fastening down the tinfoil on the cylinder where it was held by a pin running in a longitudinal slot. Parafined paper appears also to have been experimented with as an impressible material.
It is said that Carman, the foreman of the machine shop, had gone the length of wagering Edison a box of cigars that the device would not work. All the world knows that he lost.
The original Edison phonograph thus built by Kruesi is preserved in the South Kensington Museum, London. That repository can certainly have no greater treasure of its kind.
But as to its immediate use, the inventor says: “That morning I took it over to New York and walked into the office of the Scientific American, went up to Mr. Beach’s desk, and said I had something to show him.
“He asked what it was. I told him I had a machine that would record and reproduce the human voice. I opened the package, set up the machine and recited, ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ etc. Then I reproduced it so that it could be heard all over the room.
“They kept me at it until the crowd got so great Mr. Beach was afraid the floor would collapse; and we were compelled to stop.
“The papers next morning contained columns. None of the writers seemed to understand how it was done. I tried to explain, it was so very simple, but the results were so surprising they made up their minds probably that they never would understand it — and they didn’t.
“I started immediately making several larger and better machines, which I exhibited at Menlo Park to crowds.
“The Pennsylvania Railroad ran special trains. Washington people telegraphed me to come on.
“I took a phonograph to Washington and exhibited it in the room of James G. Blaine’s niece (Gail Hamilton); and members of Congress and notable people of that city came all day long until late in the evening.
“I made one break. I recited ‘Mary,’ etc., and another ditty: ‘There was a little girl, who had a little curl Right in the middle of her forehead; And when she was good she was very, very good, But when she was bad she was horrid.’
“It will be remembered that Senator Roscoe Conkling, then very prominent, had a curl of hair on his fore head; and all the caricaturists developed it abnormally.
“He was very sensitive about the subject. When he came in he was introduced; but being rather deaf, I didn’t catch his name, but sat down and started the curl ditty. Everybody tittered, and I was told that Mr. Conkling was displeased.
“About 11 o’clock at night word was received from President Hayes that he would be very much pleased if I would come up to the White House. I was taken there, and found Mr. Hayes and several others waiting.
“Among them I remember Carl Schurz, who was playing the piano when I entered the room. The exhibition continued till about 12.30 a.m., when Mrs. Hayes and several other ladies, who had been induced to get up and dress, appeared. I left at 3.30 a.m.
“For a long time some people thought there was trickery. One morning at Menlo Park a gentleman came to the laboratory and asked to see the phonograph.
“It was Bishop Vincent, who helped Lewis Miller found the Chautauqua. I exhibited it, and then he asked if he could speak a few words.
“I put on a fresh foil and told him to go ahead. He commenced to recite Biblical names with immense rapidity. On reproducing it he said: ‘I am satisfied, now. There isn’t a man in the United States who could recite those names with the same rapidity.'”
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The Edison Commemorative Silver Dollar Coin shows with an image of Edison with his phonograph and an image of the patent drawing, both circa 1878.
