Paraffined paper was selected to receive the
indentations, and substituted for the Morse paper on the cylinder of the
machine. On speaking to the tympanum, as the cylinder was revolved, a
record of the vibrations was indented on the paper, and by re-passing
this under the indenting point an imperfect reproduction of the sounds
was heard. Edison 'saw at once that the problem of registering human
speech, so that it could be repeated by mechanical means as often as
might he desired, was solved.' [T. A. Edison, NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW,
June, 1888; New York ELECTRICAL REVIEW, 1888,]
The experiment shows that it was partly by accident, and not by
reasoning on theoretical knowledge, that the phonograph was discovered.
The sound resembling 'human talk heard indistinctly' seems to have
suggested it to his mind. This was the germ which fell upon the soil
prepared for it. Edison's thoughts had been dwelling on the telephone;
he knew that a metal tympanum was capable of vibrating with all the
delicacies of speech, and it occurred to him that if these vibrations
could be impressed on a yielding material, as the Morse signals were
embossed upon the paper, the indentations would reproduce the speech,
just as the furrows of the paper reproduced the Morse signals.
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