Alexander Graham Bell quotation from Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory

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d a distance of at least 8 feet from the phonograph." The point of the jet is glass, and could be directed at a single groove. [Illustration: Figure 5.--EXPERIMENTAL GRAPHOPHONE photographed in 1884 at the Volta Laboratory. This is similar to one preserved at the Smithsonian Institution. (_Smithsonian photo 44312-D._)] The other experimental Graphophones indicate an amazing range of experimentation. While the method of cutting a record on wax was the one later exploited commercially, everything else seems to have been tried at least once. The following was noted on Wednesday, March 20, 1881: "A fountain pen is attached to a diaphragm so as to be vibrated in a plane parallel to the axis of a cylinder--The ink used in this pen to contain iron in a finely divided state, and the pen caused to trace a spiral line around the cylinder as it turned. The cylinder to be covered with a sheet of paper upon which the record is made.... This ink... can be rendered magnetic by means of a permanent magnet. The sounds were to be reproduced by simply substituting a magnet for the fountain pen...." The result of these ideas for magnetic reproduction resulted in patent 341287, granted on May 4, 1886; it deals solely with "the reproduction, through the action of magnetism, of sounds by means of records in solid substances." [Illustration: Figure 6.--ANOTHER EXPERIMENTAL GRAPHOPHONE, photographed at the Volta Laboratory in 1884. (_Smithsonian photo 44