The Cylinder Phonograph

Sound technology is a complex invention that has developed over many years. In “The Incredible Talking Machine” by Randall Stross and “History of the Cylinder Phonograph” is very similar to the article “Psst… Hey, You” by Mark Fischetti. The history, benefits, and companies that grow from the sound industry all help to support the central idea. In all three articles readers learn that sound technology continues to evolve over time in marketing and refining. Since the very first phonograph many companies have used sound technology to their advantage and developed companies and businesses. Companies and rivaling competition have developed new ways to utilize this technology to their advantage. “Competitors leaped further ahead, developing a
The very first phonograph led to many things right after it was invented. “But it played music beautiful. Edison’s backers tried to persuade him that the phonograph could be marketed for entertainment purposes” (Stross par. 8). Edison saw many uses for the first phonograph and benefits that people take as a luxury today. “Letter writing and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer. Phonographic books, which will speak to blind people without effort on their parts. The teaching of elocution. Reproduction of music. 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. Music-boxes and toys. Clocks that should announce articulate speech the tone for going home, going to meals, etc. The preservation of languages by exact reproduction of the manner of pronouncing. Educational purposes… Connection with the telephone…” (History of the Cylinder Phonograph par. 5). The modern era uses sound technology for entertainment and marketing benefits. “ Department stores have tried the arrangement for retail displays, and automakers are experimenting with them so passengers can hear only their own music or movies” (Fischetti par. 4). As many people developed the first being of sound technology many luxuries that we have today
Edison at first didn’t see the real need for a phonograph, but with technology being invented everyday others saw the need for sound technology. “Ten years elapsed before Edison returned to the phonograph , only after a competitor developed a wax-coated cylinder that could be removed without ruining the recording, something impossible to do with Edison’s delicate tinfoil” (Stross par. 8). Even though another inventor thought of the idea Edison made it possible. “The only other recorded evidence of such an invention was in a paper by French scientist Charles Cros, written on April 18, 1877. The invention was highly original. The were some differences, however, between the two mens ideas, and Cros’s work remained only a theory, since he did not produce a working model of it” (History of the Cylinder Phonograph par. 2). Since the first phonograph sound technology continues to evolve into modern times. “Military and sonar tried to harness the phenomenon as far back as the 1960s but only managed to generate highly distorted audio sounds. In 1998 Joseph Pompei, then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published algorithms that cut the distortion to only a few percent” (Fischetti par. 3). Overall the history of sound technology shows how technology continues to evolve over time to what we use today, people keep refining it to make it more