Musical Mechanical History
How musical machinery has changed
With the progression of musical devices today, it’s a wonder how it all began, most would think that Thomas Edison made the phonograph, but the idea was actually made by Edouard-Leon Scott who invented and patented the idea in 1853. This invention, called the phonautograph, made a recording with sound waves on a sort of glass plate but it could not play back sound.
In 1877 however, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph which, unlike the phonautograph could record audio and play it back through a cylinder made of wax.
About a decade later, after the phonograph was made, the gramophone was one of the first successful disc players, eventually known as a record player
Record players became very popular during the 1930s-40s, record players were more box shaped and compact than a gramophone, they played audio better and didn’t require a crank, just an outlet, dial and a record to play, it made playing a record much more simple.
During the year 1962 the multi tracker was created, giving musicians the ability to play music on different layers, it gave a larger range to the ability of music.
In 1963, the cassette player was made by a company called Phillips, the cassette tape was made, it plays by running on a head in the cassette player.
In 1964 shortly 8 track tapes were created, it was similar to a normal cassette tape but it was a little more bulky
Sometime during the late 70s-80s the Walkman cassette player, boombox and compact laser disc (cd) were created, disc man included.
During the late 90s one of the very first mp3 players were created, called mpMan.
From the time of 2001-2004 the company apple had created many Ipod devices of different variants, different sizes and styles.
From all of these advancements we now listen to music on our phone, computers, turntables or whatever is used today but it’s always nice to be nostalgic so you should go out and by yourself a record player or cassette player
Related stories
Katy Sommerfield history of the cassette tape
History of the gramophone by Matthew
Jessica Lanman A complete history of the iPod
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