Thomas Edison and the Invention of the Phonograph
Thomas Edison invented the  phonographsoundmachinewaxvibrationsshort“talking machine”foil in 1877 at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was the first  phonographfoilvibrationsshortsoundwax“talking machine”machine that could both record and reproduce  soundshortvibrationsphonographfoil“talking machine”waxmachine. Before this invention, people could not save a voice or a piece of music and listen to it later. The phonograph surprised the public and made Edison internationally famous. Many people called it the  shortmachinevibrationsphonographfoilsoundwax“talking machine”.
The idea came while Edison was working on telegraph and telephone technology. He noticed that sound created  vibrationsphonographwaxmachineshortfoil“talking machine”sound. Edison believed these vibrations could make marks on a surface and could later recreate the original sound. He drew a design and asked his assistant, John Kruesi, to build the  soundfoilphonograph“talking machine”waxmachineshortvibrations. According to a popular story, Kruesi completed the first model in about 30 hours.
The early phonograph had a cylinder covered with thin tin  foilshortphonograph“talking machine”machinesoundwaxvibrations. A person spoke loudly into a mouthpiece, and the sound vibrations moved a needle. The needle made small marks in the foil while the cylinder turned. To hear the recording, the needle followed the same marks and reproduced the sound. During an early test, Edison recited the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” He was amazed when the machine repeated his words.
The first recordings were  “talking machine”vibrationsfoilsoundwaxshortmachinephonograph, and their sound was not very clear. Tin foil also broke easily, so later inventors improved the machine by using  phonographwaxshortmachinevibrations“talking machine”foilsound cylinders. Phonographs were used for music, language lessons, business messages and entertainment. Later, flat records became more popular than cylinders. The phonograph opened the way for record players and modern audio technology. Today, people can record sound digitally on smartphones, but the basic purpose remains the same: to save sound and play it again.