The Edison phonograph monthly (Mar-Dec 1907)

J4 EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY. pressions to the mica tongue or diaphragm is intrusted; still thru others makes the diaphragm, and so on thru many processes until the complete machine — a true talking argument for the manufacturer — reaches the man who packs it in a box. In the inspection department each part is examined with a microscope for flaws or imperfections that might in the slightest degree impair the ideal result. Then it is sent to the stock room, from which it passes to the assembling room. Certain men in the assembling room put certain parts together. Each main part is made of a number of smaller parts. When the men at one table finish one part, it is sent to the stock room ; from there it goes to another table where something else is added, and so on, till it reaches the last table, all complete. Altho each minute process has been tested the machine is then tested as a whole after it is complete. Then it is ready for the packing. The greatest skill of all is required in the making of records. The records which are sent out with machines are not the originals. They are duplicates of the original, made by a molding process of infinite delicacy and accuracy. These records are, of course, much more durable than the original. In making the original record, the greatest care is taken. Sometimes twenty impressions are taken and tested before the men in charge find one which meets with their approval. Great singers, orators, brass bands, orchestras and monologue artists are hired to make records. Some great singers charge as much as $1,000 for singing into the recording machine. But the manufacturers find it pays to get the best, for they can sell thousands and thousands of duplicates of the records made by a world-renowned artist. The thousand and one things which would interest a visitor to a great talking machine factory would be impossible to enumerate here. I have only touched upon the very high points, and on looking over this article I find I have even missed some of those. It is a rather funny sight to see a great orator talking into a machine for he addresses the vacant looking funnel as if it represented a great audience, which indeed it does later, and gesticulates with all the grace and abandon that are his, when he is thrilling with his eloquence a great audience at Madison Square Garden and knows that a moving picture machine is recording his every gesture. In the same way the prima donna sings to the machine with all the fervor and passion that makes her the greatest in the world, for she knows that her song will reach an audience greater than she ever reached before. People have the idea that these wonderful machines are simply a means of entertaining people, but it has other uses. It is in daily use in business offices. The business man's machine has a blank record cylinder. Into this he dictates his letters. He sends the records to his stenographer, who writes directly from the spoken words of the machine. If she misses a word she stops the machine and turns back. As she can regulate the speed of reproduction, it never goes too fast for her. The machine that talks has passed the stage of being a scientific toy. It is a valuable business assistant, and the greatest home entertainer in the world. By its aid the greatest singers, bands and actors are constantly at one's command. What an invaluable record it will be of great people when they are dead. By its aid the voices of the world's greatest singers and the speeches of the world's greatest statesmen can be preserved for the delight and education of generations yet unborn. We salute the greatest invention of the greatest age in the world's history. Store of T. E. W. WILLIAMS, Adelaide, South Australia. The above reproduction of the store of one of our most active Dealers in South Australia shows that in the matter of enterprise, fine dis play, etc., that country is fully awake to the opportunities for selling Edison goods.