Machines like this were used to record speech for playback and transcription. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented an earlier version of this machine that could record and reproduce the human voice. His design used a tinfoil-covered cylinder. When he listed the uses for his invention, ‘letter writing and all kinds of dictation’ was at the top of the list. In 1881, Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter produced the first recording device that used a rotating wax-coated cylinder. The machine used a steel stylus (needle) to cut vertical grooves in the wax coating in order record sound. By the late 1880’s, Bell and Tainter formed the Volta Gramaphone Co. and began to manufacture sound recording machines specifically for business and office use.
In 1907, the patent was sold to American Gramaphone Co., which eventually became Columbia Gramaphone Co., who trademarked the Dictaphone. In 1923, the Dictaphone Corporation was created from the Columbia Gramaphone Co., and by 1939, the first electronic dictation machines were introduced. Wax cylinders like the one this model were used until the mid 40’s. In 1947, Dictaphone introduced the Dictabelt technology, which cut grooves into plastic belts instead of wax cylinders. This technology was eventually replaced magnetic tape and then hard drive recording, which is most common today. The Dictaphone Corporation entered the digital era in the 1980’s, and still exists today as one of America’s five oldest surviving brands.
Sources:
http://www.officemuseum.com/dictating_machines.htm
http://www.dictaphone.com/aboutus/
* Post prepared by Tyler Jones, WCHC Student Intern.
Answer to last week's question:
The solution to last week's question is 'C', a canning jar lifter.
