In 1877, the American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) experimented with a machine called a “phonograph”, which converted sound vibrations into grooves on a cylinder covered with tinfoil. A sharp needle, called a stylus, was attached to a diaphragm at the narrow end of a large horn. When sound waves travelled into the horn, they made the diaphragm vibrate, causing the needle to move up and down, and cutting a groove of varying depth in the tinfoil. If this process was reversed, so that the needle was made to run over the grooves, it caused the diaphragm to vibrate. Vibrations passed through the horn, pushing air in front of them, to reach the listener’s ear as sound. Later, wax-coated cylinders were used instead of tinfoil, to give a better result.
The history of sound recording – which has progressed in waves, driven by the invention and commercial introduction of new technologies — can be roughly divided into four main periods:
- the “Acoustic” era, 1877 to 1925
- the “Electrical” era, 1925 to 1945
- the “Magnetic” era, 1945 to 1975
- The “Digital” era, 1975 to the present day.
Experiments of capturing sound on a recording medium for preservation and reproduction began in earnest during the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s. Many pioneering attempts to record and reproduce sound were made during the latter half of the 19th century – notably Scott’s Phonautograph of 1857 – and these efforts culminated in the invention of the phonograph by Thomos Edison in 1877. Digital recording emerged in the late 20th century and has since flourished with the popularity of digital music and online streaming services.
Picture Credit : Google