Disk records have taken the place of the old-style cylinder records, the latter being confined for the most part to dictating machines for office use, as the Dictaphone, which has largely displaced the shorthand writer in many business houses.
In Band and Orchestra Recording each Instrument is at a Different Elevation
Leopold Godowsky, One of the World’s Greatest Pianists, Making a Record
The bell at the left is rung to advise the artist that the recorder is ready and the flashing of the light at the right is the signal to begin playing.
Since the original Thomas A. Edison patents and the Bell and Tainter patent there have been many thousands granted, but only a few need be referred to as constituting the milestones in the evolution and development of the art and industry.
First in point of time and importance is the Macdonald Spring Motor, the invention of Thomas Hood Macdonald, a prolific inventor and contributor of many valuable improvements to the talking machine art and industry. The Bell and Tainter machine was operated by a storage battery and this was an inconvenient and expensive form of power. To meet this condition the Macdonald Spring Motor was invented and from the start proved a tremendous success. Today most of the clockwork motor talking machines are built upon the principles disclosed in the Macdonald Spring Motor patent.