Graphophone

The graphophone was an improved version of the phonograph invented through the laboratories of Alexander Graham Bell. It took five years of research under the directorship of Charles Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell to develop and distinguish the machine from Thomas Edison's phonograph. The graphophone used a floating stylus to cut hill and dale grooves into a wax-coated cardboard cylinder. The sound quality was significantly better than the sound quality of Edison's machine. Because at this time recording was a mechanical process rather than an electromechanical process, it was called acoustic recording.

Late 1880s, Jesse Lippincot used nearly $1 million of his inheritance to consolidate the national sales right to the graphophone in the a company called the North American Phonograph Company. Early 1890s Lippincott eventually fell victim to the mechanical problems and resistance from stenographers. This would postpone direction for the graphophone until 1889 Louis Glass, manager of the Pacific Phonograph Company would popularize it again through nickel-in-the-slot "entertainment" cylinders.

External links

* [http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/graphophone.html Charles Tainter and the Graphophone]