Phonograph definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (6)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

noun A machine that reproduces sound by means of a stylus in contact with a grooved rotating disk.

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A type or character for expressing a sound; a character used in phonography.
A form of phonautograph, the invention of Thomas A. Edison, by means of which sounds are made to produce on a register permanent tracings, each having an individual character corresponding to the sound producing it. The sounds can be afterward reproduced from the register. In its original form it consists essentially of a curved tube, one end of which is fitted with a mouthpiece, while the other end (about two inches in diameter) is closed with a diaphragm of exceedingly thin metal. Connected with the center of this diaphragm is a steel point, which, when the sounds are projected on the disk from the mouthpiece, vibrates backward and forward. This part of the apparatus is adjusted to a cylinder which rotates on a horizontal axis. On the surface of the cylinder is cut a spiral groove, and on the axis there is a spiral screw of the same pitch, which works in a nut. When the instrument is to be used, a piece of tin-foil is gummed round the cylinder, and the steel point is adjusted so as just to touch the tin-foil above the line of the spiral groove. If words are now spoken through the mouthpiece, and the cylinder is kept rotating either by the hand or by clockwork, a series of small marks will be made on the foil by the vibratory movement of the steel point, and these markings will each have an individual character corresponding to the various sounds. The sounds thus registered are reproduced by placing the diaphragm with its steel point in the same position with reference to the tin-foil as when the cylinder originally started. When the cylinder is rotated, the indentations previously made cause the steel point to rise or fall, or otherwise vibrate, as they pass under it, and the diaphragm is consequently thrown into a state of vibration exactly corresponding to that which produced the markings, and thus affects the surrounding air so as to produce sounds closely similar to those originally made by the voice. The reproduced sound is, however, more or less metallic and nasal, and some of the consonants, as s and z, are not clearly given. The contents of the strips of foil may be reproduced in sound after any length of time, and repeated until the markings become effaced. The instrument has recently been improved and made in the form shown in the second cut, in which the cylinder is driven by an electric current from a battery, and the tinfoil is replaced by a cylinder of hard wax, which can be turned off to remove marks and thus fitted to register other sounds —a process that may be repeated many times before the cylinder is rendered useless.
To register or record by means of the phonograph.

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As a matter of fact, the invention of the phonograph was the result of pure reason. — Edison, His Life and Inventions
Writing in 1878 in the North American-Review, Mr. Edison thus summed up his own ideas as to the future applications of the new invention Among the many uses to which the phonograph will be applied are the following 1. — Edison, His Life and Inventions
In 1887 his time was comparatively free, and the phonograph was then taken up with renewed energy, and the effort made to overcome its mechanical defects and to furnish a commercial instrument, so that its early promise might be realized. — Edison, His Life and Inventions
Another difficulty encountered in the commercial development of the phonograph was the adjustment of the recording stylus so as to enter the wax-like surface to a very slight depth, and of the reproducer so as to engage exactly the record when formed. — Edison, His Life and Inventions
Years before the phonograph was successfully used in the 1908 presidential campaign, politicians had jumped on the recording device's bandwagon. — Science News / Features, Blog Entries, Column Entries, Issues, News Items and Book Reviews

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phonograph

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