1897 "Q" type graphophone

Made:
1897
1897 'Q' Type Graphophone. 1897 'Q' Type Graphophone. 1897 'Q' Type Graphophone. 1897 'Q' Type Graphophone. 1897 'Q' Type Graphophone.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

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License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

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1897 'Q' Type Graphophone.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

1897 'Q' Type Graphophone.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

1897 'Q' Type Graphophone.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

1897 'Q' Type Graphophone.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

1897 'Q' Type Graphophone.
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

1897 "Q" type graphophone, with horn and one wax cylinder record.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) (the inventor of the first practical telephone) and his colleagues at the Volta Laboratory received a patent for the graphophone in 1887. It was a direct improvement on Thomas Edison’s phonograph, the first device to successfully record and play-back sound, which he had invented a decade prior in 1877.

Edison viewed his phonograph as a novelty device due to the limitations of recording onto tin foil so moved onto other inventions, but Bell saw the device’s potential. Bell worked on a machine with his colleagues for several years that was distinctive enough from Edison’s to obtain a patent. They named the machine the graphophone, and it had an improved recording medium, using wax coated cardboard cylinders with hollow centres - a much more reliable medium than tin foil.

Inspired by the potential success of the graphophone, Thomas Edison returned to work on his phonograph, finally brining his design to commercial market. Edison’s phonograph used all wax cylinders, an improvement on the graphophone’s wax coated cardboard cylinders. Unusually, the two competitors eventually came to a patent sharing agreement and Edison’s improved cylinder became the standard format, interchangeable between both the graphophone and the phonograph.

This example is a version of the graphophone manufactured by the American Graphophone Company in 1897. They purchased the patents for the device in 1887 and would eventually evolve into the Columbia Phonograph Company – now known as Columbia Records, who claim to be the oldest surviving name in the music industry.

Alexander Graham Bell used his share of profits made by the sale of Volta Laboratory's recording patents to create the Volta Bureau, which was focussed on work to invent technologies for the deaf and hard of hearing community. The Bureau merged with the American Association for the Promotion of the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf in 1908 and is now known as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Details

Category:
Sound Reproduction
Object Number:
1929-664
type:
graphophone
credit:
Columbia Gramophone Company Limited