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.
CARLATA BRADLEY
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.
The famous picture of Marilyn Monroe, laughing as her skirt
is blown up by the blast from a subway vent, was shot on
September 15, 1954 during the filming of The Seven Year
Itch.
The scene infuriated her husband, Joe DiMaggio, who felt it
was exhibitionist, and the couple divorced shortly afterward.
The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison,
Alexander Graham Bell‘s Volta Laboratory made several
improvements in the 1880s and introduced the graphophone,
including the use of wax-coated cardboard cylinders and a
cutting stylus that moved from side to side in a zigzag groove
around the record. In the 1890s, Emile Berliner initiated the
transition from phonograph cylinders to flat discs with a spiral
groove running from the periphery to near the center, coining
the term gramophone for disc record players.
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931)
