Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory / Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5, (pages 69-79)

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory, by Leslie J. Newville

Contributions from
The Museum of History and Technology:
Paper 5
Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory
Leslie J. Newville

By Leslie J. Newville
The fame of Thomas A. Edison rests most securely on his genius for making practical application of the ideas of others. However, it was Alexander Graham Bell, long a Smithsonian Regent and friend of its third Secretary S. P. Langley, who, with his Volta Laboratory associates made practical the phonograph, which has been called Edison's most original invention.
The Author: Leslie J. Newville wrote this paper while he was attached to the office of the curator of Science and Technology in the Smithsonian Institution's United States National Museum.
The story of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone has been told and retold. How he became involved in the difficult task of making practical phonograph records, and succeeded (in association with Charles Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell), is not so well known.