The Machine That Stole a Human Voice

Name: The Machine That Stole a Human Voice
Genre: Documentary

In 1877, a strip of tin foil speaks back—and transforms an obscure laboratory director into the Wizard of Menlo Park.

Episode one is free. The rest of the series needs All Access.

Transcript

Edison spoke Mary had a little lamb into the phonograph; it played the phrase back.
On November 21st, 1877, Edison announced an invention that could preserve sound.
Edison had moved his family and assistants to Menlo Park in 1876.
Experiments involving the telephone and telegraph led to the phonograph in 1877.
The tin-foil phonograph was the first machine to record and reproduce sound.
Mary had a little lamb.
The crowd tightens into a ring, shoulders forward, every face angled at one spot.
It was the first machine able to both record and reproduce sound.
Around the machine, the air turns still, charged with wonder.
The tin-foil phonograph became Menlo Park's first major invention.
He gained international fame and was dubbed the Wizard of Menlo Park.
On February 19th, 1878, he received phonograph patent number 200,521.
In April 1878, Edison was invited to the White House to demonstrate the tin-foil phonograph.
I never quit until I get what I'm after.
Menlo Park was described as the first research-and-development laboratory of its kind.
He developed everything needed to make the phonograph practical, including records and equipment.
Its backstory ran through telegraphy, a failed vote recorder, and a $40,000 payday.

But before the Wizard of Menlo Park captured a voice, he was a barely schooled railroad boy listening to messages race down a wire.

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