THE ENTRY
In late 1877, Thomas Edison’s laboratory produced a working tinfoil-cylinder phonograph. Spoken words could be mechanically captured and played back—a startling shift from sound as a temporary event to sound as a stored object.
The machine was not the first attempt to trace sound waves, but its ability to reproduce recognizable speech made recorded sound tangible to the public.
WHY IT MATTERED
The phonograph established the basic cultural possibility behind records, radio libraries, sampling, downloads, and streaming: a performance could be separated from the moment and place where it happened.