The Graphophone was the name and trademark of an improved version of the

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

. It was invented at the

Volta Laboratory The Volta Laboratory (also known as the Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory, the Bell Carriage House and the Bell Laboratory) and the Volta Bureau were created in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. by Alexander Graham Bell.(19/20th-century scientist and ...

established by

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Te ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, United States. Its trademark usage was acquired successively by the Volta Graphophone Company, then the American Graphophone Company, the

North American Phonograph Company The North American Phonograph Company was an early attempt to commercialize the maturing technologies of sound recording in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Though the company was largely unsuccessful in its goals due to legal, technical and financ ...

, and finally by the

Columbia Phonograph Company Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the Ame ...

(known today as

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

), all of which either produced or sold Graphophones.

Research and development

It took five years of research under the directorship of Benjamin Hulme, Harvey Christmas,

Charles Sumner Tainter Charles Sumner Tainter (April 25, 1854 – April 20, 1940) was an American scientific instrument maker, engineer and inventor, best known for his collaborations with Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, Alexander's father-in-law Gardiner Hubb ...

and

Chichester Bell Chichester Alexander Bell (1848–1924) was an American chemist and inventor. He was a first cousin of Alexander Graham Bell, and instrumental in developing improved versions of the phonograph.American History MuseumCharles Sumner Tainter Papers, ...

at the Volta Laboratory to develop and distinguish their machine from Thomas Edison's Phonograph. Among their innovations, the researchers experimented with lateral recording techniques as early as 1881. Contrary to the vertically-cut grooves of Edison Phonographs, the lateral recording method used a cutting stylus that moved from side to side in a "zig zag" pattern across the record. While cylinder phonographs never employed the lateral cutting process commercially, this later became the primary method of phonograph disc recording. Bell and Tainter also developed wax-coated cardboard cylinders for their record cylinder. Edison's grooved mandrel covered with a removable sheet of tinfoil (the actual recording medium) was prone to damage during installation or removal. Tainter received a separate patent for a tube assembly machine to automatically produce the coiled cardboard tube cores of the wax cylinder records. The shift from tinfoil to wax resulted in increased sound fidelity and record longevity. Besides being far easier to handle, the wax recording medium also allowed for lengthier recordings and created superior playback quality.Library and Archives Canada
The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings: Early Sound Recording and the Invention of the Gramophone

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...

website, Ottawa. Retrieved May 24, 2014. Additionally the Graphophones initially deployed foot treadles to rotate the recordings, then wind-up clockwork drive mechanisms, and finally migrated to electric motors, instead of the manual crank on Edison's Phonograph.

Commercialization

In 1885, when the Volta Laboratory Associates were sure that they had a number of practical inventions, they filed

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

applications and began to seek out investors. The Volta Graphophone Company of Alexandria, Virginia, was created on January 6, 1886, and incorporated on February 3, 1886. It formed to control the patents and to handle the commercial development of their sound recording and reproduction inventions, one of which became the first

Dictaphone Dictaphone was an American company founded by Alexander Graham Bell that produced dictation machines. It is now a division of Nuance Communications, based in Burlington, Massachusetts. Although the name "Dictaphone" is a trademark, it has bec ...

.Newville, Leslie J
Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory
United States National Museum Bulletin,

United States National Museum The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

and the

Museum of History and Technology The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

, Washington, D.C., 1959, No. 218, Paper 5, pp.69-79. Retrieved from Gutenberg.org. American Graphophone Graphophone

After the Volta Associates gave several demonstrations in

, businessmen from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

created the American Graphophone Company on March 28, 1887, to produce and sell the machines for the budding phonograph marketplace. The Volta Graphophone Company then merged with American Graphophone,Hoffmann, Frank W. & Ferstler, Howard
Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound: Volta Graphophone Company
CRC Press, 2005, Vol.1, pg.1167, , which itself later evolved into

.Schoenherr, Steven
Recording Technology History: Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone
, History Department of,

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

, revised July 6, 2005. Retrieved from University of San Diego History Department website December 19, 2009.Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Alexander Graham Bell
, Encyclopedia of World Biography. Thomson Gale. 2004. Retrieved December 20, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com. The Howe Machine Factory (for sewing machines) in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

, became American Graphophone manufacturing plant. Tainter resided there for several months to supervise manufacturing before becoming ill, but later went on to continue his inventive work for many years. The small Bridgeport plant, which initially produced three or four machines a day, later became the Dictaphone Corporation.

Subsequent developments

Shortly after American Graphophone creation, Jesse H. Lippincott used nearly $1 million of an inheritance to gain control of it, as well as the rights to the Graphophone and the Bell and Tainter patents. He directly invested $200,000 into American Graphophone, and agreed to purchase 5,000 machines yearly, in return for sales rights to the Graphophone (except in Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia). Soon after, Lippincott purchased the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company and its patents for US$500,000, and exclusive sales rights of the Phonograph in the United States from Ezrah T. Gilliand (who had previously been granted the contract by Edison) for $250,000, leaving Edison with the manufacturing rights. . He then created the North American Phonograph Company in 1888 to consolidate the national sales rights of both the Graphophone and the Edison Speaking Phonograph. Jesse Lippincott set up a sales network of local companies to lease Phonographs and Graphophones as dictation machines. In the early 1890s Lippincott fell victim to the unit's mechanical problems and also to resistance from stenographers, resulting in the company's bankruptcy. A coin-operated version of the Graphophone, , was developed by Tainter in 1893 to compete with ''nickel-in-the-slot'' entertainment phonograph demonstrated in 1889 by Louis T. Glass, manager of the Pacific Phonograph Company. In 1889, the trade name ''Graphophone'' began to be utilized by Columbia Phonograph Company as the name for their version of the Phonograph. Columbia Phonograph Company, originally established by a group of entrepreneurs licensed by the American Graphophone Company to retail graphophones in Washington DC, ultimately acquired American Graphophone Company in 1893. In 1904, Columbia Phonograph Company established itself in Toronto, Canada. Two years later, in 1906, the American Graphophone company reorganized and changed its name to Columbia Graphophone Company to reflect its association with Columbia. In 1918, Columbia Graphophone Company reorganized to form a retailer, Columbia Graphophone Company—and a manufacturer, Columbia Graphophone Manufacturing Company. In 1923, Louis Sterling bought Columbia Phonograph Co. and reorganized it yet again, giving birth to the future record giant

.History of the manufacturer: Columbia Phonograph Co. Inc

Retrieved from Radio Museum website, February 26, 2016. Early machines compatible with Edison cylinders were modified treadle machines. The upper-works connected to a spring or electric motor (called Type K electric) in a boxy case, which could record and play back the old Bell and Tainter cylinders. Some models, like the Type G, had new upper-works that were not designed to play Bell and Tainter cylinders. The name ''Graphophone'' was used by Columbia (for disc machines) into the 1920s or 1930s, and the similar name ''Grafonola'' was used to denote internal horn machines.

References

* This article incorporates text from the

, a government publication in the public domain.

External links

Charles Tainter and the Graphophone

The Development of Sound Recording at the Volta Laboratory
Raymond R. Wile,

Association for Recorded Sound Collections The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings. Established in 1966, members include record collectors, discographers, and audio engineers, togeth ...

Journal, 21:2, Fall 1990, retrieved July 2, 2017
Type K Electric Graphophone
* Identification guides for Columbia Graphophones: *

*

*

{{Alexander Graham Bell Audiovisual introductions in 1886 Audio players Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States Alexander Graham Bell Phonograph manufacturers History of Bridgeport, Connecticut Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) American inventions Articles containing video clips

Research and development

Commercialization

Subsequent developments

See also

References

External links