The Edison phonograph monthly (Mar 1903-Feb 1904)

EDISOX PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY WHAT THE WORLD HAS LOST. (From the Salt Lake Tribune.) In an interview with Thomas A. Edison in the National Magazine, Joe Mitchell Chappie reports the great inventor as saying, in reply to an inquiry as to which of his inventions was his favorite : "The phonograph — the phonograph, by all means ! It has been a long time since the first phonograph, as we count time nowadays, and improvements come every day ; but I think I have accomplished more the past year on it than in any of the years before. My ambition is to have it so perfect that it will reproduce your Boston symphonies to perfection, giving the distinct intonation of every instrument." And the speaker is represented as speaking "with all the enthusiasm of a boy with his first kite." Well he may be enthusiastic, for the phonograph is one of the sort of inventions that is not only marvelous in itself, but it is marvelous that one should have thought of such a thing as within the range of practical possibilities. To catch the human voice and fix its speech and tones in durable form and for all time, is a thing so incredible to the ordinary mind as to partake much of the nature of the miraculous. And when it was demonstrated as a brilliant fact, then the thought at once arose, What a misfortune to the human race that this invention was not known of old, so that the voice and speech of the great ones of the ages could have come down to us with exactness. How many questions would it not solve, if we had the living voice of Caesar, Cicero, Demosthenes, Pericles, the Rameses, Alexander the Great, and above all, the Master ! The thought is well calculated to bring newly to the mind the losses we have sustained because this and some other inventions were "born too late. If we could hear the voice of Menes in directions to his overseers in the building of the great pyramid, we would no longer be in doubt why he built it. If we could hear Cicero's orations, there would be no uncertainty about the pronunciation of. Latin. If we could hear the voice of Asshurbanipal, we would know the origin and methods of Assyrian and Babylonian civilization. If we could have the conversations of Hammurabi, we would know where he got his great civil code, and what his ideas were of the ancient days, that had been lost sight of in the mists of the ages, even in his time. The world has lost so much in the way of perished knowledge that might have been preserved, that it is hungry to learn as much as it can of its loss, and a little resentful that there was no Edison, in the ancient world, to provide for its preservation while yet it was in position for transmission to posterity. LISTED RECORDS BY OTHER TALENT. Hereafter, all Records of the following titles shipped from our factory will be sung by Arthur Clifford instead of J. J. Fisher. A*" 701 1. Love's Sorrow. \ 7735 I'll be Your Sweetheart. 7654. Believe. The many admirers of Mr. Clifford's Records will approve the substitution. All Records hereafter made of No. 7850, "I Must a Been a Dreamin' " will be sung by Collins and Harlan and not by Collins and Natus as now listed In a letter to our Foreign Department received late in May an important Dealer in England wrote : "After trying many kinds of Talking Machine Records, we have decided to push your gold moulded Records only, and shall stock no other. They are the loudest, clearest and purest in tone and are entirely free from 'scrapeiness.' " LIKES OUR "FOLLOW UP" METHOD. Fairygroye, Mich., May 27, 1903. Some time ago I received a card from you stating that , of Unionville, Mich., had written you asking about the Edison Phonograph and Records, and asking me to follow the matter up, which I did, and sold him an Edison Standard Phonograph and one dozen Records. Since that time I have taken his order for a larger horn. I appreciate your way of doing business and assure you that I shall do all in my power to sell your goods. A. H. Moses. A CHICAGO PHONOGRAPH ENTHUSIAST. Chicago, 111., May 2, 1903. I have one retail customer of whom I want to tell you about. March 1 of this year we sold him a Triumph outfit with a 56-inch by 28-inch bell, B. & G. horn, a cabinet for 144 Records and two dozen Records. He now has 404 Standard Records, and has had built in his house a cabinet that holds 650 Records (in addition to the cabinet sold him.) This cabinet is a handsime thing with silk curtains in front, costing him all told, $43.50 for the cabinet complete, and his 144 cabinet cost him .$20. We are having a horn factory make him now a special horn 56 inches long with a 16-inch throat where brass and steel are joined, and this horn will cost him $40. Enthusiastic! You never saw just such a gentleman. He is a Hungarian and a fine baritone singer. I do not believe there is a finer or, better constructed collection in Chicago — if in the United States — than his. The Ray Co., Per E'. B. Walthall, Manager. Have any of our Jobbers or Dealers an equally enthusiastic customer?