An Early Phonograph

[benb]

I thought of titling this An Early Turntable, then saying maybe it's actually a "turncylinder." In fact it's not just early, it's the first one:

Edison Showed Off the Phonograph 138 Years Ago Today

Edison Showed Off the Phonograph 138 Years Ago Today | Mental Floss

I found the second video quite interesting.

"This was a shocking invention, and led to rapid improvements—using wax cylinders for recording, mass-produced recordings, and also disc-based recordings."

I can only imagine the arguments over whether cylinders or discs had the best audio quality.

 

[Pano]

There is a good bit of argument over whether this was the "first". Not much argument about how successful it was. 😉

 

[lousymusician]

My mother has one of these in working condition:

Been in the family since new. The horn was destroyed long ago.

Bill

 

[costis_n]

I saw one of these in working condition in the historic expo of the national broadcaster few year ago. Amazingly, it was not in a glass box. Even more amazingly, I turned the switch, and it started making music! I was... just wow...

 

[Pano]

30-35 years ago these were fairly common in antique shows in the USA. So where the cylinders. Not anymore. 🙁