Mass Producing Records   From GHN  Revision as of 16:24, 23 July
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Mass Producing Records  When Thomas Edison invented the
phonograph he imagined many uses for a recording and playback
machine. However, within a few years of the phonograph’s
introduction, market forces had narrowed down those options to
just one: playing music. The popularity of playing music on the
phonograph created a demand for mass production of records.
Making copies of records in very large quantities was the key to
making the modern record industry.  The original Edison
phonograph recorded on a sheet of tinfoil that could be stored,
folded, or even mailed. Edison believed tinfoil records could be
duplicated in mass quantities. However, when Chichester Bell and
Charles S. Tainter improved Edison’s basic machine in the 1880s,
they switched from tinfoil to wax cylinders. Recordings on wax
sounded better and Edison made the switch too.  Phonograph
cylinders (in front), disc reco