Thomas Edison debuted one of the critical pieces of technology for today’s modern entertainment devices on this day in the 1870s. Edison invented the first practical light bulb, the motion picture camera and the phonograph. Edison was the first to actually reproduce audio.
Recordings could only be played a few times due to the low quality. His first invention recorded onto tinfoil around a grooved cylinder.
He walked into the office of the Scientific American, and placed the machine before the editors. Without any introduction whatever he turned the crank, and to the astonishment of all present the machine said: “Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?”
The machine spoke for itself, and made known the fact that it was the phonograph. Edison never improved on his design, but Alexander Graham Bell invented an improved version of the phonograph using wax cylinders in 1880.
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