After 1878 Edison became too much engaged with the development of the
electric light to give much attention to the phonograph, which, however,
was not entirely overlooked. His laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey,
where the original experiments were made, was turned into a factory for
making electric light machinery, and Edison removed to New York until
his new laboratory at Orange, New Jersey, was completed. Of late he has
occupied the latter premises, and improved the phonograph so far that it
is now a serviceable instrument. In one of his 1878 patents, the use of
wax to take the records in place of tinfoil is indicated, and it is
chiefly to the adoption of this material that the success of the
'perfected phonograph' is due. Wax is also employed in the
'graphophone' of Mr. Tainter and Professor Bell, which is merely a
phonograph under another name. Numerous experiments have been made by
Edison to find the bees-wax which is best adapted to receive the record,
and he has recently discovered a new material or mixture which is stated
to yield better results than white wax.
The wax is moulded into the form of a tube or hollow cylinder, usually 4
1/4 inches long by 2 inches in diameter, and 1/8 inch thick. Such a
size is capable of taking a thousand words on its surface along a
delicate spiral trace; and by paring off one record after another can be
used fifteen times.
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