[N326019], Technical Note, Ezra Torrance Gilliland, October 5th, 1886

https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/N326019

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Title

[N326019], Technical Note, Ezra Torrance Gilliland, October 5th, 1886

Editor's Notes

"Commenced work on the standard Phonograph-- Plan is to make a small compact instrument suitable for office work. It is not expected that it will talk loud but is to be made to be held to the listeners ear like a telephone and to be made to talk about as loud and clear as a good telephone on a short circuit-- Is to be driven by a small motor, probably an electrical motor, and so made that it can be readily stopped and started and backed up or reversed set back-- motors to arranged to run as near as possible a uniform speed and have a simple or convenient regulating device to control speed-- The greatest eight off perfection will be to make cylinders or plates containing the record interchangeable, ie a talking record made in one machine to be transferred and reproduced in another-- although the machine will have great commercial value if this cannot be accomplished-- The cylinder should be about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches in diameter made of glass or polished stel should be about 4 or 5 inches in length and have 40 to 50 threads to the inch this will give it a capacity of about 10,000 words based on 1 1/2 diameter or 5 in circumference 50 threads to inch would be 250 inches to inch of cylinder in length 5 in long would give 1.250. inches to the cylinder with say about 8 to 10 words to the inch or 10.000 words to the cylinder-- I believe that diaphragms and needles or points can be made so cheap and simple that they can always be a part of the cylinder and removed from the machine with the cylinder and thereby we accomplish interchangeability as tere is no difficulty in repeating many times the record made if the point and diaphragm are not disturbed. A cylinder its thread and diaphragm & point can be the detachable portion of a machine, and the reversing gear and motor and all other parts can be contained in the stationary part of balance of the mechanism. The motor should be connected through the medium of a flexable shaft to prevent the buzz or jar being communicated to the Phonograph. This will also make the apparatus more convenient to use providing it is made a size that will admit of its being held to the ear to listen and to the mouth to talk to it, in case it cannot be made light enough to admit of this then a flexable speaking tube can be used for talking int and listening, in this event the jarring sound of the motor will not be as likely to interfere-- The cylinder should be made of polished glass or metal and the substance that receives the record or vibration should be either a shellac, gum or wax or something of that nature which can be applied with a brush or by dipping into a liquid solution and allowing to dry on and can be dissolved off and thereby prevent any scratching or injury to the cylinder and be cheap and require so special a skill or devices to accomplish this most important part of the work-- Gums or shellacs or substances of that nature will be less likely to produce the scratching sound which has been such a serious trouble in the use of tin foil If the diaphragm & needle are made to always be ketp together then the cylinder can be prepared by the Phonograph Company or their experts and furnished to the customers and a rental charged and a continuous revenue derived-- [drawing] Plan for cylinder diaphragm and point screw and bearings to always to kept together end of screw has square or other means of connecting it to the motor-- the cylinder gets its bearing on a rim or flange located at each end which is made to neatly fit the bore of the casting which holds the mouth piece-- The mouth piece is made to adjust by revolving it is also fitted with a device for lifting it when cylinder is to be set back to point [nice drawing of phono] [following pages undated drawings for Village telephone system]

Date

1886-10-05

Folder/Volume ID

N326-F

Microfilm ID

43:828

Document ID

N326019

Publisher

Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University
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