[D8959AFO], Letter from George Edward Gouraud to Thomas Alva Edison, October 19th, 1889
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/D8959AFO
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- Title
- [D8959AFO], Letter from George Edward Gouraud to Thomas Alva Edison, October 19th, 1889
- Editor's Notes
- Private My dear Edison "Grams" I am very anxious over this question owing to the unusually bad behaviour of the grams last recd those reamed out in grooves inside. Recent letters to you (official) have explained generally how they slip & warp but I have not liked to speak as plainly as I now feel it necessary to do. Quite in yr own interest as much, ideed more than in my own. It is no doubt that the slipping is chiefly due to the warping, as the high place makes the knive or the syle, or both when both are in action, cvut so deep as to turn the gear on the cyliner. Whether the warping is done recently or was so when they left the works I cannot say, but the fact remains that for some time past, indeed ever since they came we have not been able to make a record without first planing off several turns, frequently as many as 5 times! & with some as many as 7 times !! Then when the Gram is taken off, if it & the cylinder are not previosuly so9 marked as that the gram may be replaced exactly where it was before it was taken off it will again have to be planed off several times before it can be used again for recording!!! Now it must be perfectly evident that no matter how perfect the mechanism of the Phonograph is it cannot be consdered and will not be accepted by the public as a "Commercial Machine" so long as the Grams are as they are, and require such a lot of fooling with & waste of time and patience, and if you cant make a gram that can be used at once it is put on or make the recorder so that it will follow the warp then we should not call it a "Commercial Machine" or sell it as such till you can do so, for as sure as you live, if we do we shall be disappointed for the public will not accept it as such, & both your reputation & the Phonograph will suffer in consequence. That you will ultimately overcome this difficulty I have not the least doubt, but what I am immediately concerned about is the present. Both you and the Phonograph are on a loft Pinnacle of fame & both must inevitably suffer in the proportion to the Phono. falls short of realizing the expectation so generously accorded to it. =In conclusion I will only add that if the Grams you are now sending here are no better than those I have thus far recd. their first appearance in Public in those countries will damage its reputation as a "practical machine" to a degree that will retard its development to an incalculable degree-- If you have any better Grams than those sent me as a letter from Batchelor implies & that [mine?] wre sent "too fresh" "no sufficiently seasoned"--then I shall be only too glad to know it, & I sincerely trust you will give such orders as will insure me in the future against a recurrence of the necessity for such an explanation-- Pray see to it in your own interest that only the best & latest of everything is sent to me-- If to do that means "delay" by all means let there be delay! Far better "more delay" than such adverse and damaging criticism as would have resulted from putting out these grams I have now if you have no better grams than these & you do see your way to better [shortly] pray do not send these to Denmark & Holland but wait. The "new attachments" so far as recd. Greatly improve the machine for "practical purposes" & the only weak point in the affair at present so far as I can see is the "warping & slipping Grams! Cant you arrange some little attachment that will hold the gram in position when fixed? Any one intent on what he was dictating might talk for minutes without observing that the gram was slipping & not a word recorded George Gouraud
- Author
- Gouraud, George Edward
- Recipient
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- Date
- 1889-10-19
- Type
- Letter
- Folder ID
- D8959-F
- Microfilm ID
- 127:965
- Document ID
- D8959AFO
- Publisher
- Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University
- Has Version
- Archive.org Viewer, Microfilm Series Reel 127
- License
- CC0 1.0 Universal