Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory
Leslie J. Newville
foil was used. Rather than apply for a patent at that time, however, they deposited the machine in a sealed box at the Smithsonian, and specified that it was not to be opened without the consent of two of the three men. In 1937 Tainter (fig. 1) was the only one still living, so the box was opened with his permission. For the occasion, the heirs of Alexander Graham Bell gathered in Washington, but Tainter was too old and too ill to come from San Diego. The sound vibrations had been indented in the wax which had been applied to the Edison phonograph. The following is the text of the recording: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy. I am a graphophone and my mother was a phonograph." Remarked Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor,[8] Bell's daughter, when the box was opened in 1937, "That is just the sort of thing father would have said. He was always quoting from the classics." [Figure 4.--PATENT DRAWINGS from U. S. patent 341214, granted May 4, 1886, to Chichester Bell and C. S. Tainter.] The method of reproduction used on the machine, however, is even more interesting than the quotation. Rather than a stylus and diaphragm, a jet of air under high pressure was used. "This evening about 7 P. M.," Tainter noted on July 7, 1881, "The apparatus being ready the valve upon the top of the a
