JUBILEE OF THE GRAMAPHONE

Shannon News, 20 September 1927, Page 3

JUBILEE OF THE GRAMAPHONE

ITS STORY RELATED.

It is fifty years this year since the phonograph, the progenitor, of the gramophone, was invented, and the anniversary is fittingly commemorated by the publication in New Zealand of an interesting volume entitled UThe Romance of the Gramophone,” the author of which is Mr T. Lindsay Buick, F.R. Hist. S., of Wellington, whose researches into New Zealand’s early history have hitherto been the chief products of his pen. In this book, Mi Buick displays all his talent for patient enquiry and felicitous expression, and the result is a volume that will be welcomed by all gramophone enthusiasts. He begins his narrative in. the mists of antiquity by a fascinating speculation as to whether the ancient Egyptians were acquainted with the mechanical reproduction of sound as exemplified in the giant granite statues at Alemnon which at dawn and dusk reputedly emitted musical sounds. A rapid survey of historical allusions to -sdund reproduction brings the authoi to two Frenchmen, Edouard Scott (1857) aiid Charles Cros (1877), who experimented, in practice and theory, along the lines on which the actual inventoi. Thomas Alva Edison succeeded in August, 1877. Ail enthralling account is given of the stens that led up to wliat Was really an epoch-making discovery. Convinced by his earlier experiments that the human voice could be recorded and reproduced at will, Edison prepared rough sketches of his machine. Calling a trusted workman, John Krusei, he instructed him to make the first phonograph. When told it was “to record talking.” Krusei laughed scornfullv, but nevertheless, such was lus loyalty to Edison, that he worked for thirty consecutive hours on the contrivance, a photograph of which is given in the book. When the machine was ready for testing there came into the room, Air Carman, foreman of the machine >shop at Edison’s laboratory, and lie was even more scornful than Krusei. To silence him Edison bet him a box of cigars that the machine would talk. , • i “The final adjustments having been made, Edison took hold of the crank, gave the cylinder a few. turns, and then spoke into the recording tube the first verse of Sarah J. Hole s- nuiseiy classic, ‘Alary ..had a little lamb.’ . ■ . . When the crank of the machine was turned back, and the little groove in the tin foil was placed opposite the reproducing needle, it was found that Mary had the lamb all right! No sooner had‘Edison, with bated breath, begun to turn the handle again, than there came back to him his very words clothed in his very accent. Not, it is true, c o loudly as he had pronounced them, but loud enough and clear enough to leave no doubt that the machine had spoken and that the problem of repioducing the human voice was indisputably solved. John Krusei, who was standing by, was thunderstruck. He threw up his hand in excitement and shouted: ‘Gott in Himmel, it have spoke! ’ Carman, less demonstrative; but none the less convinced, quietly remarked, as he chewed the end of his cigar: ‘Well, I guess I’ve lost my bet.’ There is no record of what Edison said or thought in that supreme moment of his life.” That is an excerpt from Air Buick s vivid narrative. The author goes on to describe the almost equally important invention by Emile Berliner of the gramophone, and the reception and subsequent development' of these machines, still only in their infancy though their achievement has been so remarkable. About their future he scarcely dares to speculate. “The Romance of the Gramophone” is published at 6s and a review copy is forwarded by Air K. Aitken, of Levin, who has received supplies of the book.