The record player, also known as a phonograph, though now becoming more and more obsolete, was the first invention from which has arisen all manner of devices for the playback of recorded audio. Before MP3 technology, compact and mini discs, cassette tapes and eight tracks, only the phonograph was capable of playing back sound.
Definition
The phonograph is a device that produces sound from the vibration of a needle or stylus that follows a groove on a moving surface. The surface is of either a rotating disc or rotating cylinder, which help to maximize the length of the groove while minimizing the volume of the object the groove sits upon. It was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was an inventor who began working on telegraphs during his teenage years. One of Edison's first inventions was a voting machine, which did not sell as politicians expressed displeasure that the machine might bring about too sudden of a change in the political process. Edison later worked on ideas that would later lead to the telephone. At one point, Edison was as close to inventing the telephone as Alexander Graham Bell, credited with the invention of the telephone, was to inventing the phonograph.
Invention
Although Bell beat Edison to the telephone, Edison did succeed in inventing the phonograph. Edison had been experimenting with a machine that could send telegraphic messages recorded onto a moving paper tape, and decided that sound could be recorded and played in a similar fashion. Using a rotating metal cylinder with tinfoil wrapped around it instead of tape, Edison spoke the words, "Mary had a little lamb" into a mouthpiece, which caused a needle to vibrate and record indentations in the cylinder. The machine played his words back to him, and in 1877 the phonograph was invented.
Initial Uses
Seeking to market the device, Edison tried several uses for the phonograph. The phonograph found application in toys, where a cylinder and needle could be contained inside of a doll, allowing it to talk. A predecessor to the jukebox was also created, operated by inserting coins. Edison also tried to market the phonograph as a stenographer replacement--a machine into which someone could dictate and preserve his own words; this naturally was met with opposition from stenographers. Later, the phonograph found use primarily in home entertainment, playing back recordings of music.
Cylinders to Discs
The first phonographs used cylinders as the preferred medium on which to record sound; however, discs were introduced and eventually replaced the cylinder. The cylinder has potentially superior sound quality because the grooves in a disc get shorter as they approach the middle of the disc; since the disc always rotates at the same speed, the groove, relative to the needle, is actually traveling slower as it approaches the center of the disc. Edison started out devoted to cylinders only, but the rising popularity of disc phonographs convinced him to make discs and players of his own. By the 1920s, discs were by far the predominant form of recorded sound.
Phonographs Today
Phonographs, more commonly called record players or turntables today, continue to exist as a niche product for enthusiasts and DJs. For most purposes, phonographs have been replaced by CD players and MP3 players.
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