416 NEWNES PRACTICAL MECHANIC-, N,ay, How The Until1907 TheDictatingMachine Graphophone," But In The Same Year An Word " Dictaphone " AndTheReal Arg"-Thi System Dates From That #1.11111111111111111.11111111k and most of the energies of the proprietor'sHow Speech is Recorded were turned in this direction, though the Fig.I.-The firsthand -operatedmodelofthe dictation machine side of the business was The actual recording of speech on the gramophone" as completed in 1881 by Mr. Tainternever wholly neglected. wax cylinder of the dictating machine, and his associates.It was the forerunner of commer- Until 1907 the dictating machine wasthough a natural marvel,is really very cial sound recording. known as the " office Graphophene," andsimple. as such was( marketed by the Columbia Air vibrations set up by the voice travel THE system of recording sound onCompany.In that year the new namealong the speaking tube(Fig.3),and a waxcylinder, which madethe" Dictaphone " was coined-by an English- impinge upon the upper surface of a flexible phonograph, the gramophone and theman, curiously enough.The new namediaphragm of mica. To the lower surface dictating machine practicalpropositions, proved attractive and the real advance ofof the diaphragm, and resting on the surface dates back over fifty years. the Dictaphone system dates from thatof the revolving cylinder, is a tiny cutting It was in1881 that Charles Sumner time. tool of sapphire, the recorder point, which Tainter and the famous Bell, the inventor So far as the British Isles are concernedis ground into cup form with a very keen of the telephone, evolved in collaborationthe progress of the dictating machine inedge. what they called, to use their own words,business (see Fig. 2) has been due entirely The air waves, striking the diaphragm, "the first practical phonograph." to the efforts of three brothers, Messrs. setit in vibration in the vertical plane. Their original model was placed in a The vibrations are thus conveyed to the hermetically sealed container and deposited recorder sapphire, which cuts in the surface in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. of the cylinder " hill and dale "-that is There it remained. until .1937, when the vertical-indentationscorresponding in case was opened in the presence of repre- depth to the vibrations set upinthe sentatives of Tainter and of the descendants diaphragm of the air waves. of Graham Bell.Mr. Tainter, who is still living in California, was unable through As the cylinder revolves, the " carriage " feeble health to be present at the opening which bears the recording mechanism is ceremony. drawn forward by a feed screw, with the The machine found in the container had result that the recorder point cuts a spiral a "hill and dale" track, that is to say the groove from one end of the cylinder to the record was cut vertically on the surface of other. The depth of the cut is very shallow the wax cylinder. There was also an electro- -little more than the thickness of a cigar- plated metal " master " of a laterally cut ette paper-but even so the indentations groove on a wax disc, the forerunner of follow with extreme fidelity the vibrations the modern gramophone (see Fig. 1). of the diaphragm. It is a remarkable and little known fact This is exactly the process followed in that the inventors at first visualised the making a gramophone record, except that new machine as a means of dealing with Fig. 2.-The first commercial dictating machine.Ita flat wax disc is used and the diaphragm business dictation. That was how it appealed was hand driven. is set vertically so as to impart a lateral to Edward D. Easton, who, after seeing the movement totherecorder. The great machine demonstrated at an exhibition,Thomas, William and James H. Dixon.advantage of the disc recordis that an became so enthusiastic about its possibilitiesMr. Thomas Dixon formed the Dictaphoneelectro-plated metal " master " can be used thatheformedthefamous ColumbiaConipany Limited in 1909, and was theto press records, while cylinders have to be Gramophone Company to market it. Eastonfirst managing director, with his brothersmoulded, a far slower and less satisfactory was at the time a New York reporter, andas fellow -directors. The company in 1911 process. he subsequently became the president ofmoved from Oxford Street to its present the Columbia Company. headquarters at Kingsway House, London,Speech Improved For a time the early machines were soldand branch offices were soon established at for business purposes.Later the phono-Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liver- To make the voice of the dictator audible graph entered upon its remarkable develop-pool, Leeds,Bristol,Newcastle -on -Tyne and enable the typist to transcribe the dicta- ment as a means of musical entertainment,Dublin and Belfast. tion, the recording process is simply reversed. Fig. 3.-(Left) The dictating Dictaphone for desk use. Fig. 4.-(Right) The recorder reproducer on the dictating machine. www.americanradiohistory.com.