On February 19, 1878, Thomas Edison was awarded U.S. Patent
No. 200,521 for his invention—the phonograph.
The technology that made the modern music business possible
came into existence in the New Jersey laboratory where Edison
created the first device to both record sound and play it back.
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931)
was born in in Milan, Ohio, but grew up in Port Huron,
Michigan.
He was an American inventor and businessman who developed
many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass
communication, sound recording, and motion pictures.
These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion
picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb,
have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized
world.
Edison’s first successful model of light bulb, used in
public demonstration at Menlo Park, December 1879.
On this day in1877, the publication Scientific American
enthuses about Thomas Edison‘s new invention: the
phonograph, a way to record and play back sound.
Calling it a "wonderful invention," the article describes
the machine’s capability: "…whoever has spoken or
whoever may speak into the mouthpiece of the phonograph,
and whose words are recorded by it, has the assurance that
his speech may be reproduced audibly in his own tones long
after he himself has turned to dust.
On November 15, 1867, the first stock ticker was unveiled in
New York City. The advent of the ticker revolutionized the
stock market by making up-to-the-minute prices available
to investors around the country.
Prior to this development, information from the New York
Stock Exchange, which has been around since 1792,
traveled by mail or messenger.
The ticker was the brainchild of Edward Calahan, who
configured a telegraph machine to print stock quotes
on streams of paper tape (the same paper tape later
used in ticker-tape parades).
The ticker, which caught on quickly with investors, got
its name from the sound its type wheel made.
Edward Augustin Calahan (1838–1912)
The First Stock Ticker – Postcard.
Thomas Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio.
Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most prolific inventors in history,
died in his home in West Orange, New Jersey of complications of
diabetes. He was 84.
By the time he died, Thomas Edison had amassed a record 1,093
patents: 389 for electric light and power, 195 for the phonograph.
150 for the telegraph, 141 for storage batteries and 34 for the
telephone.
The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company‘s new
steamship, the Columbia, was the first commercial
application for Edison’s incandescent light bulb in
1880.
