SOUND ON WAX
By Tyler Stemerman
T
he ability to record and then listen to sound has
been around for less than two hundred years.
New advances in technology occur every year.
Compact discs were the standard for playing music up
until almost 20 years ago and could be used in cars or
home stereos, but each disc could only hold about 80
minutes of audio. In the present day, our phones can store
hundreds of hours of music and stream from various
music-sharing apps. Sound recording is often taken for
granted, because it is accessible on even simple devices.
The first recording device’s capabilities, however, was
far more limited and primitive; it was called a pho-
nograph. It used what is called a “wax cylinder,” and
its invention led to the ultimate development of the
processes we use today to listen to recorded sound.
While Edison is often remembered for his invention of
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magazine
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Photos Courtesy of
Thomas Edison National Historical Park
the lightbulb, he also created the first device capable of
playing back sound. In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison
was working on a new invention that would allow people to
record telephone communications when he discovered
another way to record sound. By using a stylus on a hand-
cranked, tinfoil-covered cylinder, Edison was able to record
himself singing, “Mary Had A Little Lamb”, and then play it
back. The stylus would make grooves on the tinfoil caused
by the vibrations of the singer’s or speaker’s voice, creating
a recording which could then be played back and heard by
the same means. Once this process worked, Edison showed
the public his new device. He quickly became known by the
nickname “Wizard of Menlo Park”. Edison filed for a patent
for his phonograph on December 24, 1877 and only worked
on it very briefly after the patent was approved, choosing
instead to continue his work refining his other invention, the
lightbulb.