Thomas Edison

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

2) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(edmp+4034))+@field(COLLID+edison))

3) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/ils:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3a04464))+@field(COLLID+ph))

4) http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edtime.html

5) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edbiohm.html

Original Edison Tin Foil Phonograph

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Experimental sound film made for Edison's kinetophone--a combination of the kinetoscope and phonograph--but apparently never distributed. The LC copy is silent. Features two men dancing to a violinist.

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Edison kinetoscopic record of a sneeze

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Thomas A. Edison with his children Madeleine and Charles,

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The History of the Edison Cylinder Phonograph #1

The phonograph was developed as a result of Thomas Edison's work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. In 1877, Edison was working on a machine that would transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape, which could later be sent over the telegraph repeatedly. This development led Edison to speculate that a telephone message could also be recorded in a similar fashion. He experimented with a diaphragm which had an embossing point and was held against rapidly-moving paraffin paper. The speaking vibrations made indentations in the paper. Edison later changed the paper to a metal cylinder with tin foil wrapped around it. The machine had two diaphragm-and-needle units, one for recording, and one for playback. When one would speak into a mouthpiece, the sound vibrations would be indented onto the cylinder by the recording needle in a vertical (or hill and dale) groove pattern. Edison gave a sketch of the machine to his mechanic, John Kreusi, to build, which Kreusi supposedly did within 30 hours. Edison immediately tested the machine by speaking the nursery rhyme into the mouthpiece, "Mary had a little lamb." To his amazement, the machine played his words back to him.

Although it was later stated that the date for this event was on August 12, 1877, some historians believe that it probably happened several months later, since Edison did not file for a patent until December 24, 1877. Also, the diary of one of Edison's aides, Charles Batchelor, seems to confirm that the phonograph was not constructed until December 4, and finished two days later. The patent on the phonograph was issued on February 19, 1878. The invention was highly original. The only other recorded evidence of such an invention was in a paper by French scientist Charles Cros, written on April 18, 1877. There were some differences, however, between the two men's ideas, and Cros's work remained only a theory, since he did not produce a working model of it.

Edison took his new invention to the offices of Scientific American in New York City and showed it to staff there. As the December 22, 1877, issue reported, "Mr. Thomas A. Edison recently came into this office, placed a little machine on our desk, turned a crank, and the machine inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a cordial good night." Interest was great, and the invention was reported in several New York newspapers, and later in other American newspapers and magazines.

The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company was established on January 24, 1878, to exploit the new machine by exhibiting it. Edison received $10,000 for the manufacturing and sales rights and 20% of the profits. As a novelty, the machine was an instant success, but was difficult to operate except by experts, and the tin foil would last for only a few playings.

Phonograph Catalog/Advertisement: "I want a phonograph in every home...".

Original Edison Tin Foil Phonograph. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site.

Ever practical and visionary, Edison offered the following possible future uses for the phonograph in North American Review in June 1878:

1. Letter writing and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer. 2. Phonographic books, which will speak to blind people without effort on their part. 3. The teaching of elocution. 4. Reproduction of music. 5. The "Family Record"--a registry of sayings, reminiscences, etc., by members of a family in their own

voices, and of the last words of dying persons. 6. Music-boxes and toys. 7. Clocks that should announce in articulate speech the time for going home, going to meals, etc. 8. The preservation of languages by exact reproduction of the manner of pronouncing. 9. Educational purposes; such as preserving the explanantions made by a teacher, so that the pupil can refer

to them at any moment, and spelling or other lessons placed upon the phonograph for convenience in committing to memory.

10. Connection with the telephone, so as to make that instrument an auxiliary in the transmission of permanent and invaluable records, instead of being the recipient of momentary and fleeting communication.

Eventually, the novelty of the invention wore off for the public, and Edison did no further work on the phonograph for a while, concentrating instead on inventing the incadescent light bulb.

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Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies

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[Dickson experimental sound film] / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. ; producer, W.K.L. Dickson.

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OTHER TITLES Variant title: [Dickson violin] CREATED/PUBLISHED United States : [Edison Manufacturing Co., 1895] SUMMARY Experimental sound film made for Edison's kinetophone--a combination of the kinetoscope and phonograph--but apparently never distributed. The LC copy is silent. Features two men dancing to a violinist. NOTES Copyright: no reg. Performer: W.K.L. Dickson or Charles D'Almaine. Camera, William Heise. Duration: 0:21 at 30 fps. Filmed ca. September 1894 to April 2, 1895, in Edison's Black Maria studio. Sources used: Copyright catalog, motion pictures, 1894-1912; Musser, C. Edison motion pictures 1890-1900, 1997, p. 178. SUBJECTS Sound motion pictures--Experiments. Kineto-phonograph. Violin. Violinists. Dance. Men dancers. MusicRELATED NAMES Dickson, W. K.-L. (William Kennedy-Laurie), 1860-1935, production, cast. Heise, William, camera. Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Dunston (Gatewood) Collection (Library of Congress)

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#3 TITLE: Edison kinetoscopic record of a sneeze / taken & copyrighted by W.K.-L. Dickson, Orange, N.J.

CALL NUMBER: PH - Dickson (W.), no. 2 (A size) [P&P]

REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-USZC4-4861 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZC4-3652 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZCN4-16 (color film copy neg.) LC-USZ62-536 (b&w film copy neg. of cropped image)

SUMMARY: Series of 45 photographic frames of man sneezing.

MEDIUM: 1 photographic print : gelatin printing-out paper print : 7 x 5 in.

CREATED/PUBLISHED: c1894 Jan. 9.

CREATOR:

Dickson, W. K.-L. (William Kennedy-Laurie), 1860-1935, photographer.

NOTES:

44732Y U.S. Copyright Office.

Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and curators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York : Knopf, 1997.

Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress.

SUBJECTS:

Sneezing--1890-1900.

FORMAT:

Motion study photographs 1890-1900. Gelatin printing-out paper prints 1890-1900.

Selection from: Timeline for Inventing Entertainment: #4

The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies

1888 Edison meets Eadweard Muybridge, who shows him his zoopraxiscope; Edison sets William K. L. Dickson and other assistants to work to make a Kinetoscope, "an instrument which does for the Eye what the phonograph does for the Ear". Improved Phonograph introduced, followed by the Perfected Phonograph. Edison's daughter, Madeleine, is born on May 31.

Jesse H. Lippincott assumes control of phonograph companies by forming the North American Phonograph Co. on July 14; leases phonographs as dictation machines.

Edison files his first caveat(a Patent Office document in which one declares his work on a particular invention in anticipation of filing a patent application) on the Kinetoscope and Kinetograph on October 8; William Kennedy Laurie Dickson assigned to work on project.

Thomas A. Edison with his children Madeleine and Charles, circa 1892, from The Life and Inventions of Thomas Alva Edison, by W. K. L. Dickson and Antonia Dickson, p. 352.

1889 Edison produces dolls with tiny cylinders inside to make them talk for the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Co.; project ceases in March 1891.

Edison General Electric formed in April.

Edison Manufacturing Co. is organized.

1890 Lippincott becomes ill and loses control of North American Phonograph Co. to Edison, its principal creditor. Edison's son, Charles, is born on August 3.

1891 A peep-hole viewing machine shown by Edison on May 20 to participants from the National Federation of Women's Clubs.

1892 Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston merge into General Electric.

1893 Construction on a film studio known to Edison employees as the "Black Maria" completed in February; earliest Edison motion pictures were filmed there.

First public demonstration of Edison's 1 1/2" system of Kinetoscope at the Brooklyn Institute on May 9. Copyright registered to William K. L. Dickson for sample kinetoscope records on October 6.

1894 Edison declares bankruptcy for the North American Phonograph Co.

Applications submitted to U.S. Patent Office for the Kinetograph and the Kinetoscope.

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Edison Home Page | Motion Pictures | Sound Recordings | Edison Biography

Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931)

Inventor Thomas Alva Edison profoundly influenced modern life through inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. During his lifetime, he acquired 1,093 patents, and marketed many of his inventions to the public.

A brief biography of Edison is featured here, along with articles from journals of his day in which he offered his views on music, films, inventions, and other topics. Famous for his motion picture and recorded sound inventions, Edison himself appears here in a film (A Day with Thomas A. Edison) and on a disc recording (Let Us Not Forget).

Special Presentations: Life of Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931) | Timeline

Article: "Who's Who in the Film Game: Facts and Fancies About a Man You Know or Ought to Know," Nickelodeon, August 1, 1910, pp. 63-64.

Sound Recording: Let Us Not Forget -- A Message to the American People by Thomas A. Edison, 1919

Article: "Edison Views the World at Seventy," Edison Diamond Points, February 1917, pp. 14-16.

Film: A Day with Thomas A. Edison, General Electric Co., 1922

Article: "New Aspects on the Art of Music," Edison Diamond Points, May 1917, pp. 12-14.

Edison Home Page | Motion Pictures | Sound Recordings | Edison Biography

List of Sources Used in this Activity Workshop 3 Life in a Box: Thomas Edison

Dickson, W. K. (1894). Edison kinetoscopic record of a sneeze / taken &

copyrighted by W.K.-L. Dickson, Orange, N.J. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, PH Filing Series Photographs. cph 3g04861.

Dickson, W. K. (1892). Thomas A. Edison with his children Madeleine and

Charles. Library of Congress, Timeline for Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies. 352.

Edison, T. (1917). Edison Views the World at Seventy. American Memory,

Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931). feb1714. Edison, T. Original Edison Tin Foil Phonograph. U.S. Department of the Interior,

National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site, Library of congress, History of the Edison Cylinder Phonograph. 6182a.

Heise, W. (1895). [Dickson experimental sound film] / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. ;

producer, W.K.L. Dickson. Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, American memory, Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies. edmp 4034.