Opera: Then and Now

The original phonograph had several unique features. This video helps to explain the process that Edison's invention uses for recording and playing back the cylinders. However, a couple of problems with the invention included a time constraint for recordings (usually around 2 minutes). Additionally, the cyliders origianlly had no means to be reproduced. As a result, many times a singer would have to sing the same piece over and over again in order to create enough cylinders to be marketable mainly as a means to play music. After a dramatic fall in price, more consumers were able to purchase cylinders which made it accessible to the average consumer. 

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With grand visions in mind for the origianl invention, Eidson first listed the following as possible uses for his phonograph:​

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• Letter writing and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer.

• Phonographic books, which will speak to blind people without effort on their part.

• The teaching of elocution.

• Reproduction of music.

• The "Family Record"--a registry of sayings, reminiscences, etc., by members of a family in their own voices, and of the last words of dying persons.

• Music-boxes and toys.

• Clocks that should announce in articulate speech the time for going home, going to meals, etc.

• The preservation of languages by exact reproduction of the manner of pronouncing.

• Educational purposes; such as preserving the explanantions made by a teacher, so that the pupil can refer to them at any moment, and spelling or other lessons placed upon the phonograph for convenience in committing to memory.

• Connection with the telephone, so as to make that instrument an auxiliary in the transmission of permanent and invaluable records, instead of being the recipient of momentary and fleeting communication.