The Edison Phonograph     

[Home] [History of The Phonograph] [Pictures] [Bibliography]

Primary Sources:

This book, which is available also online as I found out later, has a chapter just about the phonograph. It is highly useful. It shows some of the things Edison did with the phonograph, like record his speeches and then play them back in another city.

This website is excellent. It contains pictures of original documents regarding the phonograph. It also includes a recording of the first recording that Edison did.

This pamphlet has some pictures on it, but it mostly has information about Edison's inventions. It contains a good sized paragraph about the phonograph. Also included with the pamphlet was a large package of pictures.

This website has no real words but more so pictures, including a sketch of the original design. Based upon that sketch, I can understand how the phonograph works now. I considered this a primary source because the sketch is a copy of the original.

This book has a ton of pictures in it. It also contains algorithms and formulas relating to the phonograph. The author takes a different approach to mechanics than the conventional person would.

This website contains a recording of a talking clock. This is just one of the many things people attempted to do with the phonograph after it was invented and was marketed.

This website talked about future talking machines. This includes the world's largest phonograph. This site also includes links to recordings including that of Edison's original recording. I considered this source primary, because the original recording is primary.

Secondary Sources:

This website contains a recording of a talking clock. This is just one of the many things people attempted to do with the phonograph after it was invented and was marketed.

This website is not very good. The only good part about it is that it includes a quote by Edison. It also includes a picture I was going to use until I got a huge packet of stuff from Edison National Historic Site.

This website was an excellent source for information. It includes dates and some other very interesting facts. I learned that it was the combination of the telephone and the telegraph. He recorded "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into it, when testing his phonograph. Also includes good list of reasons to use a phonograph over written things.

This website does not so much define the phonograph, but things that occurred afterwards. For instance it includes how Bell improved the phonograph by designing a wax cylinder that had a longer life span.

This site, although not AS useful, still has some interesting stuff on it. It has some advertising scheme's Edison attempted to use to get people to buy the phonograph.