Edison tinfoil phonograph demonstration

[grvene]

Sorry for my English. I built my phonograph. I'd like to know what material was used for the vibrating membrane of your wonderful reply.

[marcelomelloweb]

Great work! This video is featured in my History of Music playlist , of the Choir Conducting Secondary Technical School , at Ourinhos (SP, Brazil) . Reference: Roy Bennett, History of Music (Cambridge Assignments in Music). ---

Excelente trabalho! Este vídeo faz parte de minha lista de reprodução de vídeos da disciplina História da Música I, do curso de Regência da ETEC de Ourinhos (Centro Paula Souza. A lista está baseada no livro de Roy Bennett, Uma Breve História da Música.

[elel70]

Am I the only teenager of my generation to be interested in this technology?

[asharp1999]

@elel70 not completely, i have to watch this for history fair

[jojonanable]

@elel70 nope... I'm doing a project on the history of sound recording for school :)

[INDYOSKARS]

I NEVER REALISED THAT IT WAS THAT BIG.

BUT I AM THANKFUL THAT WHEN "THE BLUE

YODLER" JIMMIE RODGERS STARTED RECORDING

IN 1927, THAT IT HAD PROGRESSED.

[Finnstudios]

Its always "Mary Had A Little Lamb" Can Someone sing something else.

[Imnothecrazyone]

@Finnstudios Blast some Metallica into that thing, that would be hilarious.

[MRLOL785]

@Imnothecrazyone Definitely gonna do that when I build one.

[feqfg]

wow amazing !!

How could it be ???

[kyle0106]

i just dont get how sound can be made into lil groves. and then played back i would think it would sound like just scraping a needle on tin foil.

[cranie4]

This is a beautiful piece of machinery. Looks almost mint. And it can instantly make you sound over 120 years old :)

[iansantoyo]

this is how bongs were inspired

[bluedagger46]

I have just inherited a phonograph with wax rolls from 1900!

[ReneRondeau]

Tinfoil phonographs pre-dated wax records by over a decade. The cylindrical mandrel has grooves machined into it; a sheet of tinfoil (not aluminum foil!) is wrapped around the mandrel and the sound waves are indented into it. Wax records were a substantial improvement.

[blackcerberus999]

When a person was done with recording could he/she just replace the tinfoil with another? I would imagine if they were still used today the audio could be stored almost indefinitely, considering the care and temperatures used while storing the actual foil, almost like that of a music vinyl- as long as you don't bend, warp, etc it, it could last almost an eternity.

[ReneRondeau]

Once a recorded sheet was removed from the mandrel it could not be replaced and replayed again. These were designed just to show the principle of how phonographs worked. Once a recording was played, it would be scrapped and a new demonstration made. Records that could be played repeatedly weren't developed until the end of the 1880s.

[EmmetEarwax]

And before tin foil, records were made from - paper ! Morse code messages to be sent over the wires repeatedly. Edison got the idea from that.

After tin foil, somebody cut a lead cylinder -which still survives, tho lead is a tarnishing metal. This mess has a lot of surface noise and experiments with different speeds.

[jackispacki]

I did not know you could have such a good quality tinfoil. I thought with a tinfoil you had to like bellow into the thing and you could hardly hear the playback. Like this:Hello, Hello, mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow and every where that mary went the lamb was sure to go -(playback)dadaa, dadaa, dadedaddaddeda, dadedadadada,dadedidedadadedad­edadadadeda

[ReneRondeau]

The key to making loud and clear recordings is having a very well-made phonograph that is adjusted VERY precisely. These are definitely capable of making good recordings, as you see here, but it takes very careful adjusting to get everything precisely right. Even a slight variation can make a recording that is faint and of poor quality.

[bebe4235]

how did you get your hands on one of thosE!!

[BobbyIronsights]

Priceless!

[RADAMES1983]

Brilliant! Thanks you :)

When i was 10, after reading about it, i was trying to build one and record myself, but... :(

[ShowNumber]

Edison sound is better than Martinville O.O

[FjordMusic]

How many songs does it hold? Wouldn't it just be easier to sync it to itunes rather than recording every individual song?

[k1985p26]

sweet <3 ... I am sure all of the people who watch this movie want this one!

[Tecguy122]

Very nice, I liked the video.

I cant imagine how people reacted in those times

when they saw what it did...

[bebe4235]

@Tecguy122 haha, "Witchcraft!" lol

[urbanexplorer1996]

nice!

[Sonicku]

I dont get it, woulnt it be eiser to use MP3s to record sound?

[ReneRondeau]

Sure it would be easier, but MP3 didn't exist in 1878. This is how sound recording began. Recordings have existed for well over a century before digital recording.

[heftycat]

@ReneRondeau Don't answer to that dummy sonicku... he's just being stupid. Wonderful job by the way, amazing clarity as well I must add!!

[vulkein]

@Sonicku of course not.

[Bastiest]

@Sonicku Sure. Because everyone knows there were MP3 players in 1878. =)

[krimskrams]

is it true that edison unsuccesfully tried to make an answering machine with this?

[urbanexplorer1996]

@krimskrams no

[krimskrams]

tell me, does this phonograph use ballbearing rings inside the uprights, or is it a plain smoothe hole, since one end is a plain round surface, and the other side is half a threaded bolt

[ReneRondeau]

There are no special bearings, merely the holes through the brass supports. The threaded section is only on the last few inches of the shaft and does not go through the bearings.

[sliksspik88]

Just amazing!!

[5olidsn4ke]

i wonder if edisons voice is still recorded and playable

[gagasaurio12]

wow niceeee

[KingSlimjeezy]

imagine if they saw the ipod today

[BrandonJay1983]

It also makes Belgian waffles :D

[Slav4o911]

This is pure genius. It looks so simple today but back then it was unbelievable.

[rweerakkody4565]

imagine when this was first shown in paris, the idiots from the university of paris said it was impossible and ventriloquism........this is truly amazing!!!!! i am drunk

[wks1978]

I'm surprised at how good the playback quality is.

[EdwinR890]

Wow! I've heard of a phonograph and learned about it and Thomas Edison, and seeing this is amazing! Edison is a genius!

[david196564]

This is a wonderful machine, if would have plans i could built some of these, no big deal for an mechanical engineer. thank you

[SCENARIOBABY]

wow truly inspiring

[zpacmann]

i wish i had that for my birthday march 2nd

[Renatodonadio]

An exact reproduction of the speech Edison did as a test in his very first cylinder

[XatruchJ8]

My firts comment was before watching the video, now i can just say ...WOOOOW THAT WAS FUCKING AWSOME!!!

[XatruchJ8]

Just Amazing!!! and super intereting thank you very much ReneRondeau!

[allwedoissell]

What in the world?

[ReneRondeau]

This is the very first type of sound recording -- a needle indenting sound waves into a sheet of tinfoil. Purely mechanical.

[allwedoissell]

@ReneRondeau wow... that's amazing, to me!

[cartoonmusicandfilm]

@ReneRondeau edison was not the first to record his voice.some french inventor named eduard leon-scott de-martinvile did it 17 years earlier than edison but he just did not know how to play back the recording

[aspergershawn]

@cartoonmusicandfilm in fact, he wasn't at all interested in playing it back as audio -In a self-published memoir in 1878, he railed against Edison for “appropriating” his methods and misconstruing the purpose of recording technology. The goal, de Martinville argued, was not sound reproduction, but “writing speech, which is what the word phonograph means.” It was his goal to record speech which could later be decoded somehow from the phonoautographs he made.

[horbergaren]

@ReneRondeau clever

[clemstevenson]

@ReneRondeau No one in written history had ever heard a sound recording before, so it must have seemed almost magical.

[PaulStryper24]

Do you know how much would this cost on eBay?

[mykeawja]

One of the best clip.

Great indeed.

[pete5668]

you could wear the tinfoil recording instead of a tinfoil hat when the zombie apocalypse comes.

[yonkel]

What a beautiful machine.

[frow9405]

Patent is 100 yrs (less 10 days) before I was born.

[calsonick]

waoh brilliant !!!! Analogue baby I love it. I want to build one of these things isnt it beautiful. Permanent recording, fully mechanical.

[currencyc]

@mobian100 its a replica

[ds1961ds]

Really cool...............

[djhydro1]

amazing!!!! how a tinfoil record sounds? that technology is amazing??

[rb93fr]

exellent

[HalogenBurn]

I didn't know you could record with these.

[t3b4n22]

how the hell does this work? i dont get it

[EnerG15]

That looks like fun too do! I have a few videos of my standard on my channel for you to watch! Please watch.

[bradmotoko]

dat waz kool. this is going to help me with my history project.

[akilli1453]

Beautiful! Most people do not appreciate just how incredible this was. On the other hand, the underlying technology existed even during Roman times. What a shame!

[solidgold1988]

FAKE

[PlindyH]

I'm studying Music Technology at AS level, and, as you would expect, this came up in the development of recording technology. I'm curious, how exactly does this make or read the sounds? I understand that it is etched onto tracks, which are read by a needle, but how exactly does that end up as the sound?

[cullyvan]

Its Magic. Just write that its magic.

[edisonphonographs]

Of course you know that sound is created by viberations through the air called sound waves. When sound waves enter the horn they hit a thin piece of metal called a diaphragm. Attached to the diaphragm is a sharp recording stylus that creates an indentation in the foil or wax. As the sound waves hit the diaphragm it viberates up and down causing the depth of the groove created by the stylus to change. When you play back the recoring the groves move the diaphragm and play back the origional sound.

[Dms12444]

If I recall correctly, You talk into the cone which caues a needle to vibrate etching small patterns onto a cylinder. When this is played back, the needle vibrates when it hits these etches, reproducing the original sound, err. close to it.

[volodya2]

GREAT!

[Cjohnsonmyer014]

wow people probably crapped themselfs when they first saw this back then.

[drummerguy195]

Hell, I crapped my pants right now! ha

[woody558]

Do you have any other phonographs that you would consider selling?

[tayishere202]

truly Amazing thanks for sharing

[woody558]

Where did you get this?

[ReneRondeau]

It was made by a very close friend, master machinist Bill Ptacek in 2001. It's an extremely precise replica of the only surviving original, which is in a museum. Unfortunately Bill was killed in an accident in 2004. He only built 3 of these.

[19smokey19]

sorry to hear of ur loss with bill... how were those machines made and did it take long to built them...

[SoupIsMoney]

@ReneRondeau Theres only one original existing now? Woah.

[payaning2x]

Ha Ha Haaaaaa!!!!!

[woody558]

Can you use an aluminum can?

[danielgosson]

Have you tried any plastics such as vinyl sheet or celluloid overhead projector sheets? There is a video somewhere on youtube of someone recording onto a plastic party cup. The sound is bad but still there. Also, how many times could you replay your tinfoil before it wore out?

[danielgosson]

Amazing. The sound was much clearer & cleaner than I expected. Have you tried any other substances besides tin? does anything else work at all?

[ReneRondeau]

Heavy duty aluminum foil will work but it's much harder and that results in a harsh, scratchy sound. But on the plus side, it is actually louder than real tinfoil as I used here. In the 1870s lead foil was sometimes used but I've never found any sources for that today.

[ThePhonograph]

where do you get the tinfoil from as done a google search and nothing came up

[ReneRondeau]

I used to special-order it in quantity from a metal manufacturing company and offer it for sale to collectors. Unfortunately the price has gotten so high I had to stop buying it. I'm still working off my reserve stockpile for my recordings.

[19smokey19]

its strange what the human mind can invent..

[edisonphonographs]

How many gooves per inch do the recordings this machine makes have? What is the diaphragm made of? Very nice machine with a very clear and suprisingly lound sound!

Thanks

[ReneRondeau]

This particular machine was designed as a deluxe "drawing room instrument" with 40 grooves per inch. that is much finer than most, normal exhibition machines averaged 20 to 24 tpi.

[Shangas]

That's pretty impressive. But how well does it pick up actual music?

[ReneRondeau]

It will record music just fine, as long as it is loud enough and close to the horn. It is particularly impressive with cornet or trumpet.

[XOXOxoxoblackangel22]

chooo

[creamyfilling102]

his voice is funny

[princesskaitlyn524]

that is sooo amazingly cool!

[whurdsderodan]

Amazing.....thanks!

[leeroy956]

your the best for showing us this dont know how it works but its fantastic

[IamAnoob44]

It is actually pretty simple, it works just like a modern recorder,when you talk,you produce the sound waves which are engraved to the tinfoil as theres a needle that writes to the tinfoil when you spin it.

Hope you understand

Leroy (lol)

[PhonographBlue]

Wow... totally cool! I'm intrigued to learn more... you are inspiring me!

[pghcoyote]

How is the foil attached to the mandrel? Apparently there were a few designs for securing tinfoil to the mandrel in an attempt to limit the "click" at the seam.

[mikeferr107]

That was really just phenomenal. That is just a fantastic antique. Congratulations on having such a historical item in amazing condition. That is the nuts.

[missuniworld]

amazing

[XLinkinPark4Eva]

wow i have to do a project on music, and im going to talk about the phonograph, thanks dude.

[cant7think7clearly]

I'm impressed.

[blondee1959]

where do you get the foil

[eastmolman]

How do you get the tinfoil on the phongraph without geting any wrinkles in it?

[ReneRondeau]

The first thing is to use real tinfoil, not aluminum. It's very soft and malleable. I place it on a piece of glass and rub it out gently to remove all wrinkles until it's absolutely smooth and flawless. Then I very carefully put it around the mandrel, smoothing it constantly as I wrap it around. It's really quite easy.

[Esceha57]

Great !!!!!

Cor

Netherlands

[Esceha57]

Please watch my upload:

Tribute to Emile Berliner first recordings

[darksound1973]

Wonderful sound, very loud and natural.

[SyberkaPL]

Is this in shops?

[ikstinkniet]

were can i download the best quality video i like history so much its so cool i gona buy or make the same machien ^^ i like it so much can you send me ad me on msn i like to speak with people who likes history

[vivalamusicavieja]

Wow!!! This is a good demonstration of the Edison Phonograph. The quality of sound in the cylinder is very good!!

[GeigerTec]

This concept laid the foundation for records, CDs, DVDs, hard drives, bluerays... They all follow the same principal, so fascinating ^^

[gowest272007]

Some French guy by the name Leon Scott beat Edison by 17 years! The first recorded voice was NOT 1878! The first recorded voice was in 1860!

[amtrack88]

It was a recording of sound vibrations etched on a coated cylinder, not an actual replayable recording. The audio you may have heard on the news was a digital reproduction from analysis of these etchings.

[krimskrams]

that may very well be but,

the first reproduced voice was in 1878!

[hartnell114]

haha excellent :D always wonderd what it sounded like, id love to have herd something other than mary had a little lamb though hehe, its been done for some 130 odd years,and thats one old lamb!

[psyfertech]

ha ha haaa!!!!!

lol

good one

[WilB1972]

Awesome... I am fascinated by early recording technology. Thanks!

[amberola1b]

Very, Very, Cool

[tandolin2]

It is much louder and clearer that I expected! What a beautifully made machine, thanks for sharing this with us, Rene! John Paul A. (Rochester N.Y.)

[roguedog60]

Lol, I KNEW you were going to use those words in your demo. :) What amazes me is the fidelity of the machine, I had no idea tinfoil actually sounded that good, other than the inevitable wow from a hand cranked device. I've heard worse brown wax.

[sobinovv]

... but its truly fascinating to study the perfect action of old technology - very nice, Rene.

[sobinovv]

Hmm - somewhat low fidelity for a $10.000 repro phonograph :-)

[fuzzbear6240]

Rene, Truly amazing! (yet again!) it is such a treat to see such a rarity, thank you for sharing it with us. Regards, J.