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Mike Penney’s
page devoted to Victorian sound
recording and telephony |
THE PHONOGRAPH SPEAKING TO PROFESSOR TYNDALL
From ‘The Illustrated London August 3rd, 1878
This site features a selection of articles from old books and technical
journals. Alexander
Graham Bell’s ‘Researches in Electric Telephony’ appears beside descriptions of
obscure devices such as Lambrigot’s phonograph, Walker’s octuple telephone and
Taylor’s phoneidoscope.
I have copied all the articles from the original publications. Everything is complete and verbatim, except
where stated otherwise. Comments added
by myself are this colour.
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Before the invention of the phonograph, many researchers developed
instruments that could record the shape of sound waves. The phonautograph of Léon Scott (1857),
further developed by Rudolf König, is perhaps the best known machine.
William Henry Barlow demonstrated his own, less well known, instrument
to the Royal Society in 1874. His
‘Logograph’ performed a similar function to Scott’s phonautograph, but with
closer coupling of the speaker’s mouth to the recording diaphragm. Some traces of a voice are reproduced in
Barlow’s paper presented to the Royal Society.
Presumably the traces were made by Barlow himself. I thought, for a brief moment, that it might
be possible to recreate his voice… but of course the traces are recorded far
too slowly.
Barlow demonstrated his Logograph to the Society of Telegraph Engineers
in 1878, but he was surely overshadowed by the tinfoil phonographs demonstrated
on the same day.
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“Phonautographe de Léon Scott de Martinville” From
Alfred Niaudet’s Téléphones et Phonographes Published approx.
1885 |
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“On
the Pneumatic Action which accompanies the Articulation of Sounds by the
Human Voice, as exhibited by a Recording Instrument” An extract from W. H. Barlow’s paper presented to
the Royal Society In this paper Barlow
describes his ‘Logograph’ and gives several traces of complete words and
sentences, including the word ‘Incomprehensibility’, and lines from the poem
‘Hohenlinden’. Unfortunately I have
lost some of the pages of the original book (The Proceedings of the Royal
Society, 1874), which I extracted from a university dustbin! |
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Thomas Alva Edison’s tinfoil phonograph described
in Engineering This is a reprint of an
article from ‘Scientific American’. “When it becomes possible, as it doubtless will,
to magnify the sound, the voices of such singers as Parepa and Titiens will
not die with them, but will remain as long as the metal in which they may be
embodied will last.” According to Roland
Gelatt in The Fabulous Phonograph, Parepa and Titiens
were then ‘recently deceased’. |
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W. H. Barlow demonstrates his ‘Logograph’ to the
Society of Telegraph Engineers Barlow’s machine seems
unchanged since its appearance before the Royal Society in 1874. |
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W. H. Preece introduces the tinfoil phonograph to
the Society of Telegraph Engineers Preece demonstrates
Edmunds’ phonoscope; Puskas
demonstrates |
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Edison’s tinfoil phonograph described in Engineering Some of the first
demonstrations of the phonograph and telephone are mentioned. |
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“Examination of the Phonograph Record under the
Microscope”, The Engineer Persifor Frazer
describes his examinations of phonograph traces made at the Franklin
Institute. |
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Edison’s tinfoil phonograph described in The
Engineer A description of a
clockwork |
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An illustration from The
Illustrated London News Shows hand-cranked and
clockwork phonographs. I do not have
the associated text. |
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“Studies in Acoustics. On the Synthetic Examination of Vowel
Sounds” A paper presented to the Royal Society by W. H.
Preece and Augustus Stroh Preece and Stroh
describe their ‘synthetic curve machine’ and ‘automatic phonograph’. Helmholtz’s vowel theory is tested in
practice. |
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Charles Siemens and M. Hospitalier briefly
demonstrate the Lambrigot phonograph to the Society of Telegraph
Engineers The idea of engraving,
rather than indenting, sounds appears promising. Unfortunately, the demonstration is not a
success. |
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The
Illustrated London News on Edison’s
Perfected Phonograph A brief account of the
recording of the Handel Festival in the communications with A
brief description of the Perfected Phonograph, with another oft-seen
illustration. |
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“Engraving Sounds”, and the Bell & Tainter Graphophone described
in Engineering A comprehensive
description of the two competing machines.
Clicking on the illustrations will reveal more detail, including the
name ‘Henry Edmunds’ on the cylinder box in Fig. 2. |
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Emile Berliner describes his Improved Gramophone to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers “The work
of gradually bringing the gramophone up to the present state has been
exceedingly tedious. Working out
telephones or transmitters is child's play in the face of the traps and
Jack-o'-lanterns which beset the experiments with talking machines. The size, form and material of the
mouth-piece, the density, length and diameter of the speaking tube, the size,
thickness and material of the diaphragms, the tension, temper and thickness
of the springs, shape of the needle points, temperature of the room in which
the discs are coated, the quality of the beeswax, the strength of the acid,
and the method of manipulating the sounds of voices and of various
instruments - all these gave rise to errors and pitfalls, which only
continuous repetitions of whole series of tests could locate, avoid, or
obliterate.” |
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John Munro briefly describes Edison’s phonograph in The Story
of Electricity Published 1896 |
Some of the articles listed under ‘Telephony’ also
deal with sound recording. In
‘Researches in Electric Telephony’, Alexander Graham Bell describes his ‘ear’
phonautograph.
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From a 1902 text book by Phillip Reis’s biographer Silvanus P. Thompson:
“The first
successful attempt to transmit sounds electrically was made in 1861 by Reis,
who succeeded in conveying musical and other tones by an imperfect
telephone… Reis transmitted speech with
his instrument, but only imperfectly, for all tones of speech cannot be
transmitted by abrupt interruptions of the current, to which Reis’s transmitter
is prone when spoken into, owing to the extreme lightness of the contact: they require gentle undulations, sometimes
simple, sometimes complex, according to the nature of the sound.”
John Munro, in his 1883 paper on “New Telephone Transmitters”, claimed
to have heard a Reis telephone transmit speech.
There were no such doubts about the final version of
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A letter from Philipp Reis to William Ladd,
reproduced in the Journal of the Society of Telegraph-Engineers and
Electricians, 1883 Reis’s letter of |
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William Ladd describes an acoustic telegraph at a
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science The ‘acoustic telegraph’ Ladd describes is almost certainly his own
Reis telephone. |
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From Electricity
in the Service of Man Early
Telephones by Reis;
Garnier and Pollard’s Singing Condenser; Janssens’s Telephone Published 1886 |
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The Wray Telephone, described by J. H. Pepper in Cyclopaedic Science
Simplified This telephone is
similar to that of Reis. Published 1877 |
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Alexander Graham Bell’s Paper presented to the
Society of Telegraph Engineers, “Researches in Electric Telephony”, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 Contributions from: Latimer Clark, W. H. Preece. Researchers mentioned: Alexander Melville Bell,
Ellis, Helmholtz, Varley, Gray, La Cour, Edison, Koenig, Maurey, Blake,
Watson, Dolbear, Channing, Gower, du Moncel, and many others “Professor
Alexander Graham Bell began his experiments upon the electrical transmission
of sounds in October 1872. On From ‘The History of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers (1871-1931)’ (IEE Publication, 1939) |
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Edison’s and Phelps’s telephones, compared in The
Engineer In
an article reprinted from the Philadelphia Times, |
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Dr Clarence
Blake’s Paper presented to the Society of Telegraph Engineers, “Sound in Relation to the Telephone” Blake
describes the anatomy of the ear and
the design of |
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“On the Physical Action of the Microphone” Professor David Hughes’s paper presented to the
Physical Society in 1878, republished in the Journal of the Society of
Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians, 1883 “Professor D. E. Hughes
was a great inventor, as shown by his printing telegraph, his invention of
the microphone, and of other instruments, such as the induction balance and
sonometer. He very nearly anticipated
some of the discoveries which led to wireless telegraphy. He was also a charming companion and a most
genial man. At his death he left funds
for the endowment of several science scholarships and for the donation
annually of gold and silver medals and a premium by the Royal Society of
London for electrical discoveries and inventions, irrespective of nationality
or sex.” From ‘Fifty Years of Electricity’ by J. A. Fleming
(The Wireless Press, 1921) |
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Professor David Hughes’s microphone, described in
The Engineer |
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Cox Walker’s octuple telephone, described in The
Engineer |
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Theodore Wiesendanger’s thermophone, described in
The Engineer |
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“Edison’s Acoustic and Telephonic Researches”, described by G. B. Prescott in The
Engineer Miscellaneous variable resistance telephones - Experiments
with carbon buttons Various microphones - Short-circuiting telephones Condenser telephones - Mercury globule telephones
- Voltaic pile telephone Telephonograph - Motograph - Tasimeter -
Aerophone |
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“Recent Improvements in Professor Bell’s
Telephone” A paper by Adam Scott presented to the Society of
Telegraph Engineers. Contributions from: W. H. Preece, C. E. Webber,
Lord Lindsay, W. E. Ayrton, E. A. Cowper. Researchers mentioned: Hughes, du Moncel, Tyndall, Edison, Ader, Perry,
Clark Adam Scott describes
Frederick Gower’s telephone. The
efficiency of telephones currently in use is also discussed. W. H. Preece makes his famous, but often
misquoted, comments on the usefulness of the telephone: “One thing which strikes one in “Few have worked at the telephone much more than I have. I have one in my office, but more for show
I as I do not use it because I do not want it. If I want to send a message to another
room, I use a sounder or employ a boy to take it; and I have no doubt that is
the case with many others, and that probably is the reason why the telephone
has not been more adopted here.” |
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Research by Ayers, Beckmayer, mentioned in the Proceedings of the Institution
of Civil Engineers The Institution of
Civil Engineers was the parent Institution of the Society of Telegraph
Engineers. At its foundation in 1871,
and for the next 25 years, the Society used the Civil Engineers’ lecture
theatre in |
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“Téléphone de Bell –
Emploi de l’instrument” From
Alfred Niaudet’s Téléphones et
Phonographes Published approx. 1885 |
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From Electricity
in the Service of Man Illustrations of telephones by Ader, Bottcher,
D’Arsonval, Fein, Gray; Phelps’s Crown and Ponny telephones; Boudet’s
Miophone and Sphygmophone Telephones by Telephones of Special Construction by Ader, Breguet, Edison, Dunand, Dolbear, Pisko, Preece
Battery Telephones and Microphones by Berliner, Blake, Boudet, Crossley, Edison,
Gower, Heller, Righi; Ader’s electrophone; Locht-Labye’s pantelephone;
Wreden’s phonophore Published 1886 |
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“Some Recent Advances in Telephony” A paper by Thomas D. Lockwood presented to the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers Subjects covered
include long-range telephony; developments in carbon granule transmitters;
the reduction of ‘cross-talk’. |
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From The
Theory of Sound by Lord Rayleigh
(John William Strutt). Minimum current audible; Microphone Published 1894 |
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John Munro briefly describes a typical telephone in The Story of
Electricity Published 1896 |
‘Cassell’s Book of Sports and Pastimes’, published by Cassell approx.
1885
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Frederick Gower demonstrates his Telephone Harp
to the Society of Telegraph Engineers Gower’s Telephone Harp was a musical instrument, complete with
sound-to-light! |
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Henry Edmunds jun.’s phonoscope and Sedley
Taylor’s phoneidoscope, described in The Engineer The phonoscope and phoneidoscope produced visual representations of
sounds. The phonoscope was used by W. H. Preece in his lecture on the
phonograph to the Society of Telegraph Engineers, February 1878. |
Hughes’s Microphone, from ‘Electricity and Magnetism’ (Published by
Macmillan, 1881)
The carbon microphone, and its brother the metallic microphone, were the
subject of much discussion at the meetings of the Society of
Telegraph-Engineers and Electricians in 1883.
Although both types of microphone had been invented five years earlier,
there was still great debate on how they actually worked.
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“New Telephone Transmitters” J. Munro describes his metallic microphones |
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J. Munro’s Supplementary Note on the Action of
the Microphone. Contributions from: Prof. D. E. Hughes, W. H.
Preece, A. Stroh, Prof. W. E. Ayrton, B. Warwick, Prof. W. Grylls Adams, Walter H.
Coffin. Researchers mentioned: Varley, |
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“On Microphonic Contacts” An extract from Shelford Bidwell’s paper. Researchers mentioned: du Moncel, Clerac, Hughes, Stroh, Edison, Preece,
Munro, Boudet |
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“Note on the Influence of Surface-Condensed Gas
upon the Action of the Microphone” A paper by
Augustus Stroh describes his microphone
microscope |
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Discussion on the Action of the Microphone. Contributions from: Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, Prof. D. E.
Hughes, Prof. W. E. Ayrton, J. Munro, J. J. Fahie, W. H. Mordey, Researchers mentioned: du Moncel, Clerac, Warwick, Anders,
Theiler, Blake, Reis, Ochorwiz, Wheatstone, Stroh, De la Rue,
Perry, Müller, Varley |
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“On the
Physical Action of the Microphone” A republication of Professor David Hughes’s paper
presented to the Physical Society in 1878 |
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W. Moon describes his Static
Induction Telephone |
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I borrowed the name “The Sound of a Voice” from this postcard. The card
doesn’t really belong here, as it was posted in 1907, years after the most
recent article listed on this page. It’s
still a nice picture. I think the phonograph
is a
Before you go, take a look at (and have a listen to)
my 'Trottophone' Phonograph.
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