Wisely they determined, in 1873, to offer their machine to
Eliphalet Remington and Sons, then manufacturing firearms, sewing
machines, and the like, at Ilion, New York. Here, in
well-equipped machine shops it was tested, strengthened, and
improved. The Remingtons believed they saw a demand for the
machine and offered to buy the patents, paying either a lump sum,
or a royalty. It is said that Sholes preferred the ready cash and
received twelve thousand dollars, while Densmore chose the
royalty and received a million and a half.
The telegraph, the press, and the typewriter are agents of
communication for the written word. The telephone is an agent for
the spoken word. And there is another instrument for recording
sound and reproducing it, which should not be forgotten. It was
in 1877 that Thomas Alva Edison completed the first phonograph.
The air vibrations set up by the human voice were utilized to
make minute indentations on a sheet of tinfoil placed over a
metallic cylinder, and the machine would then reproduce the
sounds which had caused the indentations. The record wore out
after a few reproductions, however, and Edison was too busy to
develop his idea further for a time, though later he returned to
it.
The phonograph today appears under various names, but by whatever
name they are called, the best machines reproduce with wonderful
fidelity the human voice, in speech or song, and the tones of
either a single instrument or a whole orchestra.
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