Phonograph.Pdf

SILS - Spring 2020

HI307

MEDIA HISTORY:
Four Modern Revolutions

Graham Law

Sound & Sight (1): Phonograph

Structure of today’s presentation

 I Phonograph Technology

– Precedents & terminology

– Early choices

– Phonograph timeline – After the phonograph

 II Phonograph Sociology

– Phonograph functions – Production/Consumption models – Economic indicators – Subculture: Phonograph & Fashion

I. Phonograph Technology

Precedents & Terminology

 Precedents

 Terminology

– photography – electric telegraphy – telephony

– wireless telegraphy

– “registering sound” (Ozanne) – “talking-machine” (Edison)

– musical scores – music boxes – phonautography (registering sound visually)

– “phonograph” (US/Edison)

– sound – writing (Gk)

– “gramophone” (UK)

– character – sound (Gk)

– phonography (phonetic shorthand)

Nadar (Fr. Photographer) predicted in 1860s:

“an acoustic daguerreotype which faithfully …reproduces all the sounds subjected to it”

“a box in which melodies can be caught & fixed, as the camera obscura does with images”

Edison: “I was experimenting on an automatic method of recording telegraph messages on a disk of paper laid on a revolving platen … From my experiments on the telephone I knew of

the power of a diaphragm to take up sound vibrations …”

F.D. Dyer & T.C. Martin, Edison: His Life and Invention (1910) I pp. 206-8

Early technical options

 Recording/playback media  Recording/playback device

– cylinder vs. disk

• fidelity

– mechanical vs. electrical

power (motor)

– horn vs. speaker – metal needle vs. crystal stylus

• reproducibility

• storage

– tinfoil (embossing) vs. wax

(engraving)

– vertical (up-and-down) vs. lateral (side-to-side) tracking

Rough Phonograph Timeline

 Technical

 Institutional

– double-sided disks (1910s)

– Edison, Berliner, Bell, etc (1880s)

– Columbia, Victor, HMV (1890s-) – song-charts (US Phonoscope, 1896) – magazines (UK Gramophone 1923) – radio airing (1920s)
– radiograms (1930s) – shellac >> vinyl (1940s) – auto-players (1940s) – long-playing records [lps] (1950s) – mono >> hifi/stereo (1950s)

– elaborate sleeve artwork (1960s)

– colored discs (1970s)

– radio “disk jockeys” & coin “juke

boxes” (1930s)

– TV chart shows (1950s)

After the Phonograph

 Analog

 Digital (1970s-)

– early strip and wire recorders

(1890s-)
– DAT

– CD (& MD)

– reel-to-reel magnetic tape

(1930s-)

– cassette tape (1960s-)
– streaming (mp3 etc)

– computer storage (HD etc)
– portability

• portable radio-cassette players

• car stereos

– portable digital audi devices

• walkman

II. Phonograph Sociology

Phonographic Functions

 Edison’s 10 practical

applications

– as dictation machine – to create auditory books for the blind etc. – to record lessons e.g. in elocution – for recording musical performances – for creating auditory family records – in musical boxes and toys

 Writing/Reading Sound

– record (production) – playback (reception)

 Sound Content

– speech
– in speaking clocks – for auditory advertising
– music
– for preserving celebrity speeches

– as answer-phone machine

– other (natural, mechanical, …)

 Social Function

– informational

“The Phonograph and its Future”

North American Review

– educational

#126 (May-June 1878), pp. 527-36

– aesthetic (art/entertainment)

User models:

 Consumption-oriented

 Creation-oriented

– recording focus – user active – like photographs
– playback focus – user passive

– like books

– cf. sheet music & piano

– bourgeois society

– media (records etc.) as commodities

– pub singalong

– serial issue
– still consumption of

– major device updates

– added intellectual property rights hardware, blank media, etc

See: Michael Chanan, Repeated T a kes (1995)

 Booms and slumps in phonograph /

Economic Indicators:

record sales, e.g. Edison Co.

Quantity of Disc Phonographs and Disc Records Sold

Radio-Phonograph Division Accounting Department Report to W. H. Meadowcroft, April 9, 1929)

Disc Phonographs
Domestic Export
Disc Records
Domestic

3,446,070

Export

Total to Dec. 31st, 1915

95,889

73, 332 77,304 68, 749
121,539 140,149
32,963 59,606 65,925 31,900 13,977
9,906
...... 252
......

16,590

Jan. 1, 1916 to Feb. 28. 1917

Mar. 1, 1917 to Feb. 28, 1918 Mar. 1, 1918 to Feb. 28, 1919 Mar. 1, 1919 to Feb. 29, 1920 Mar. 1, 1920 to Feb. 28, 1921 Mar. 1, 1921 to Feb. 28, 1922 Mar. 1, 1922 ro Feb. 28, 1923 Mar. 1, 1923 to Feb. 29, 1924 Mar. 1, 1924 to Feb. 28, 1925 Mar. 1, 1925 to Dec. 31, 1925 Jan. 1, 1926 to Dec. 31, 1926 Jan. 1, 1927 to Dec. 31, 1927

Jan. 1, 1928 to Dec. 31, 1928

2,621,113 3,351,098 3,260,534 7,163,028 7,596,856 4,595,030 3,626,481 3,877,450 2,732,163 1,586,336 1,422,599
685,247
1,707
791
42,086 65,478
2,135 1,758 1,273
2706
4,226 4,211 4,718 4,496 3,085

2,403

131,612 124,224 144,826 157,739 145,028 200,006 193,105 212,643 122,515

88,733

7,311

12,917

405,797

Source: Edison National Historic Site <http://www.nps.gov/edis/home.htm>

Subculture: Phonograph,

Dance & Fashion

 Pre-war, e.g.

– ragtime (e.g. Scott Joplin)

 Inter-war, e.g.