The Voice That Reached the White House

Name: The Voice That Reached the White House
Genre: Documentary

The phonograph escapes Menlo Park, earns a patent, and carries Edison from laboratory curiosity to presidential sensation.

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Transcript

The tin-foil phonograph was the first machine to record and reproduce sound.
The tin-foil phonograph was Edison’s first major Menlo Park invention.
November 21st, 1877: Edison announced his phonograph invention.
Its tin-foil cylinder carried grooves made by a recording stylus.
The cylinder turned, and Edison’s recorded voice came back through the horn.
The demonstration had Edison speak “Mary Had a Little Lamb” into the machine.
February 19th, 1878: the phonograph got patent 200,521.
Edison Speaking Phonograph Company formed in early 1878 to market the phonograph.
The audience leaned in as the machine played Mary Had a Little Lamb.
The phonograph brought Edison international fame, the record states.
April 1878: Edison was invited to demonstrate it at the White House.
It would place the phonograph before President Rutherford B. Hayes.
Edison said, “I never quit until I get what I'm after.”
The phonograph’s horn stood between Edison and Hayes across a polished table.
President Rutherford B. Hayes bent toward the horn as Edison watched playback.
In 1878, Edison pursued practical incandescent electric light.

The phonograph made Edison famous, but his next promise—to create economical electric light—would place that fame under a far harsher test.

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