elektronika: History of sound recording

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

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 (1877–1925) The Electrical era (1925–1945) The Magnetic era (1945–1975) The Digital era (1975–present) Experiments in 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 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville's phonautograph of 1857 – and these efforts culminated in the invention of the phonograph by…

Evidence: 31 • authority: 80

Suicides in Finland during the latter half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century

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During the 19th century, London grew enormously to become a global city of immense importance. It was the largest city in the world from about 1825, the world's largest port, and the heart of international finance and trade. Railways connecting London to the rest of Great Britain, as well as the London Underground, were built, as were roads, a modern sewer system and many famous sites.

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Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman known for his work on the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, electric power distribution and early motion pictures. The merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the competitor Thomson-Houston Electric Company resulted in the formation of General Electric. Edison registered 1,093 patents in the United States. Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, but grew up in Michigan with little formal schooling. He became deaf as a child and learned through books and tinkering. Edison began working at a young age; as a railroad telegrapher, he spent much of his time inventing improvements to telegr…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Phonograph cylinders (also referred to as Edison cylinders after their creator Thomas Edison) are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Known simply as records in their heyday (c. 1896–1916), a name since passed to phonograph records, these hollow cylindrical objects have an audio recording engraved on the outside surface which can be reproduced when they are played on a mechanical cylinder phonograph. The first cylinders were wrapped with tin foil but the improved version made of wax was created a decade later, after which they were commercialized. In the 1910s, the competing disc record system triumphed in the marketplace to become the dominant commercial aud…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a helical or spiral groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a record. To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it, faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm that produced sound waves coupled to the open air through a flaring horn,…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is a disc-shaped analog sound storage medium with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near the outside edge and ends near the center of the disc. The stored sound information is made audible by playing the record on a phonograph (or "gramophone", "turntable", or "record player"). Records have been produced in different formats with playing times ranging from a few minutes to around 30 minutes per side. For about half a century, the discs were commonly made from shellac and these records typically ran at a rotational speed of 78 rpm,…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The phonautograph is the earliest known device for recording sound. Previously, tracings had been obtained of the sound-producing vibratory motions of tuning forks and other objects by physical contact with them, but not of actual sound waves as they propagated through air or other mediums. Invented by Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, it was patented on March 25, 1857. It transcribed sound waves as undulations or other deviations in a line traced on smoke-blackened paper or glass. Scott believed that future technology would allow the traces to be deciphered as a kind of "natural stenography". Intended as a laboratory instrument for the study of acoustics, it was used to visually…

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Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (French: [edwaʁ le.ɔ̃ skɔt də maʁtɛ̃vil]; 25 April 1817 – 26 April 1879) was a French printer, bookseller and inventor. He invented the earliest known sound recording device, the phonautograph, which was patented in France on 25 March 1857. Despite his innovation, he received little recognition during his lifetime, and his work was largely forgotten until the early 21st century, when phonautograph recordings made in 1860 were rediscovered and played back in 2008.

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Hearing Loss and the Invention of the Phonograph: The Story of Thomas Alva Edison

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"Mr. Phonograph, Are You There?": Mechanical Failure and Technological Determinism, 1877-1900.. When Thomas Edison handed over his 1877 invention of the phonograph-the new sound recording technology-to a group of investors to market across the U.S, the company lacked the proper expertise, manufacturing, and supply networks to do so. This article traces one company's struggle in dealing with the recurring malfunction of exhibition phonographs, which impacted how audiences came to view the innovation. In doing so, the article revisits the issue of technological determinism as parsed by scholars such as Bruno Latour, Robert Heilbroner, Thomas Hughes, Donald MacKenzie, and Judy Wajcman. Investi…