Figure 6.—Another Experimental Graphophone, photographed at the Volta Laboratory in 1884. (Smithsonian photo 44312-F.)
The air jet used in reproducing has already been described. Other jets, of molten metal, wax, and water, were also tried. On Saturday, May 19, 1883, Tainter wrote (see [fig. 3]):
Made the following experiment today:
The cylinder of the Edison phonograph was covered with the coating of paraffine-wax and then turned off true and smooth.
A cutting style A., secured to the end of a lever B was then adjusted over the cylinder, as shown. Lever B was pivoted at the points C-D, and the only pressure exerted to force the style into the wax was due to the weight of the parts.
Upon the top of A was fixed a small brass disk, and immediately over it a sensitive water jet adjusted, so that the stream of water at its sensitive part fell upon the center of the brass disk.
The Phonograph cylinder E, was rotated while words and sounds were shouted to the support to which the water jet was attached, and a record that was quite visible to the unaided eye was the result.
The tape recorder, an unusual instrument which recorded mechanically on a 3⁄16-inch strip of wax-covered paper, is one of the machines described and illustrated in U. S. patent 341214, dated May 4, 1886 (see [fig. 4]). The strip was coated by dipping it in a solution of beeswax and paraffine (one part white beeswax, two parts paraffine, by weight), then scraping one side clean and allowing the other side to harden.