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Making the Perfect Record: From Inscription to Impression in Early Magnetic Recording

Some Possible Forms of Phonograph (1888)

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Scratchy Noise Smith’s response to Edison’s phonograph was written in a memorandum dated September 23, 1878, roughly ten years prior to the publication of “Some Possible Forms of Phonograph” in Electrical World. The memorandum is reproduced in Clark’s “The Magnetic Recording of Sound” (1999c, 8). Why Smith took ten years to publish his hypotheses is difficult to determine. One reason may be that by 1888 he realized he had neither the time nor the resources to dedicate to magnetic recording. (This note comments on the page titled, “Responding to Edison’s Noise,” as well as the attached image titled, “Some Possible Forms of Phonograph.”)
“Talk Back” Redrawing the cord through the helix at exactly the same speed of the recording would be incredibly difficult (if not impossible) to manage if the device was operated by hand.

(This note comments on the page titled, “Fidelity and Deceit,” as well as the attached image titled, “Some Possible Forms of Phonograph.”)
His Writings on Magnetic Recording One reason they are unsure is that Smith’s lab notes and memoranda were lost in two separate fires.
(This note comments on the page titled, “Not a Worthwhile Investment,” as well as the attached image titled, “Some Possible Forms of Phonograph (1888).”)
Smith's Projected Design In “Some Possible Forms of Phonograph,” he explains one use of magnetic recording could be a “purely electrical . . . recording telephone,” where people would speak into the phone, thereby vibrating a diaphragm that would convert sounds into an electric current (Smith 1888, 116). Varying in a length and intensity relative to the duration and amplitude of what was spoken into the diaphragm, the current—together with a magnetized cord—would pass through a helix. The helix would function as a recording coil, translating the current into “a series of short magnets grouped into alternate swellings and attenuations of magnetism” impressed on the passing cord (116). The cord would be wound through two parallel reels and put into motion by hand or clockwork. And it would be kept taut by a tension brake or spring-pressed against one of the reels.