The marvels of captured sound – Edison’s phonograph – By Hemantha Yapa Abeywardena
I don’t know why I am obsessed with Edison’s this particular invention in the digital age – a variant of the phonograph. For sure, it was not the levels of sophistication as it has none of it. On the contrary, it may be the spontaneous attraction to its sheer simplicity.
I bought its modern equivalent, a few years ago with loads of old vinyl records to play them on it, when I am not inclined to limber up.
Of course, I don’t mind paying the little price by changing the records from time to time in order to make the playing continue!
The gadget in question, Edison’s phonograph, is the grandfather of all modern record players, from turntables to cassette /DVD players.
The sound produces from the records, despite being decades old, never loses its ability to arouse a wonderful sensation in your soul; it is inexplicably unique. In the Western world, especially in Europe, I am not in a minority, when it comes to admiring these antiquated devices; they are becoming fashionable and making a steady, irreversible comeback.
In the following video clip you see below, an old vinyl record is played on the small, yet amazing device; it is a piece by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss, the undisputed king of Waltz.
Thomas Alva Edison, who came up with the idea of a phonograph, had very little formal education. The Christian priest at his school that he went to, just categorized him to his own mother as a specimen that was good at nothing. You cannot blame the priest at that time for his outbursts, as Edison perfectly fitted into that mould, but godly man could have chosen some kinder words to share with the poor woman.
Beaten and heart-broken, she, however, was determined to give him the basic education that involved reading and writing while being engaged in back-breaking hard work to make a living on her own.
Despite the headteacher’s less-than-complimentary assessment, Edison had an inquiring mind – and other ideas – to compensate for the lack of standard academic skills, most probably the poor grasp of maths.
His first breakthrough came with the invention of a gadget that literally illuminated the whole world – the light bulb.
When the first major invention dealt with light, his second most famous invention, meanwhile, revolutionized how we experience sound: the phonograph. In 1877, this seemingly magical device captured the public’s imagination with its ability to record and playback human voices and music.
When he made the breakthrough, as legend has it, he sang into the machine, ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ but could not finish it, according to his own admission years later, in retrospect, because, he forgot the rest of the verses! When he ran the stylus on the grooves made in the cylinder, he could hear, ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ through the very horn of the device. Voila! History was made.
But behind the wonder lies a clever application of some basic physics principles.
Sound waves vibrate the air, and the phonograph captured these vibrations. A horn funnelled sound to a diaphragm, which wiggled a stylus. This stylus etched the wiggles onto a rotating cylinder. To hear the recording, the process reversed. The stylus followed the wiggles, vibrating the diaphragm again, recreating sound waves for our ears. It was as simple as that.
Edison’s phonograph, though basic, laid the foundation for future sound recording. From vinyl records to digital music, the core principle remains: capturing sound as physical representations and recreating vibrations to produce sound. This ingenious invention, rooted in science, transformed entertainment and communication forever.
The original cylindrical version of the phonograph with a paper cone was used to be on sale at London’s Science Museum as a Christmas present. I bought that too about 15 years ago and it worked perfectly well with the vinyl records that I had at that time. It was simply amazing.
With the second famous invention, Edison made it clear that human voice leaves its ‘footprints’ on other materials in some form or the other and if we are ingenious enough the process could be reversed too.
That means the famous sermons of our religious luminaries, Lord Buddha, Jesus the Christ, Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and the likes, must have left the sound tracks on the trees, stones and the ashrams that they used to move around, to be decoded by the future generations exactly like a stylus does on a vinyl record.
Although we may not be there yet, as far as I know, some successful attempts had been made in the US in the early 1900s to hear these voices. Dr Steinmer, a scientist, was one of them; it led to some controversy and he was made or chose on his own accord to be silent – for obvious reasons.
All in all, Edison’s inventions show us that the conversion of energy from one form to another is not as hard as what scientists make us believe by integrating endless formulae and of course, maths into the hypothetical processes. There may certainly be easier ways to do the job and in this context, the conversion of light into electricity by a simple solar panel offers the much-needed inspiration – and evidence – for those who are determined to tap into the untouched realm.
