Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Thomas Edison had initially been trying to Improve the efficiency of a telegraph transmitter when he got the idea for what would become the phonograph. During his research the inventor noticed that if you played back telegraph tape at high speed it gave off a noise resembling the human voice. Edison began trying to record telephone calls by attaching a diaphragm and needle to the receiver. Like Scott de Martinville’s earlier device the stylus would make a mark in paper when someone spoke. His great breakthrough came when he covered a cylinder in tinfoil and used that as the recording medium. When he reversed the process he was astonished to hear the words he’d spoken during the recording: ‘Mary had a little lamb’. Ever the showman Edison decided to demonstrate his device to the editorial team at Scientific American magazine. The publication later recalled the encounter in an 1896 article: ‘In December 1877 a young man came into the office and placed before the editors a small simple machine about which very few preliminary remarks were offered. The visitor without any ceremony whatever turned the crank and to the astonishment of all present the machine said: “Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?” The machine thus spoke for itself. (SP)