Author：Thomas A. Edison, Inc.

Category：Entertainment

Year：ca. 1910

Size：Length:53.1 x Width:49.5 x Height:88.9 (cm)

Place of Orgin：West Orange, New Jersey, USA

Accession Number：0012743001

Introduction：Originally Edison sold the phonograph as a set of devices named dictaphones. These could be used in offices so that managers could orally transmit letters to the machine and their secretaries could later listen to the recording and type the letter on paper. The dictaphone sets contained one machine for recording the sound on a wax cylinder and a second machine to replay it. Another part of the set, called the shaver, enabled the owner to remove a thin layer of wax from the cylinder so that it could be reused for another recording.

The benefits of using the phonograph to record music or songs were not realized until around 1890. The first cylinders couldn’t be duplicated and as only a few cylinders could be recorded in one session musicians had to record the same piece hundreds of times. As the recording market grew though, a system to duplicate or record up to 100 cylinders together was developed.