James Baquet

    We’re examining discoverers alluded to in the song “They All Laughed” by George and Ira Gershwin. Next up: “They all laughed when Edison recorded sound.”

    Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) is perhaps best known for his “invention” of the electric light bulb. It is believed there were as many as 22 incandescent bulbs invented before Edison’s. What made his different is that it was commercially successful — and he built an electrical grid to power it, combining his skills as both an inventor and an entrepreneur. Several public electric companies operating in America to this day bear Edison’s name.

    However, his first claim to fame was not in the realm of light, but sound. After making some small technological innovations in telegraphy while working as a telegrapher, he invented the phonograph in 1877. He “recorded sound.”

    Again, as with Columbus and the round earth, no one laughed. They were flabbergasted. So surprising was this development that Edison was nicknamed “The Wizard of Menlo Park,” the town in New Jersey where his lab was located. It was the first step in the long march of progress that has led to our handy MP3 technology.

    Imagine: If you wanted to hear music before Edison, it would have to be performed live, whether by a person or the rare automated instrument (like player pianos that operated from a punched paper roll). Likewise, the only way to know what someone’s voice sounded like was to hear her or him in person.

    This is all the more surprising because Edison had been deaf (or, more accurately, extremely hard of hearing) since childhood. He once wrote, “I have not heard a bird sing since I was 12 years old.” Rather than seeing this as a handicap, Edison considered it an advantage. Without the distraction of sound, especially idle chat, he was able to concentrate more fully on his work. He recommended reading to other deaf people, as “it beats the babble of ordinary conversation.”

    Certainly the Gershwins were major beneficiaries of Edison’s technology. “Swanee,” their first hit, sold over 2 million recordings.

    Vocabulary

    Which word above means:

    1. light sources using a heated wire filament

    2. made to work by itself

    3. useless, frivolous

    4. shocked, amazed

    5. empty talk

    6. system for delivering power to homes and businesses

    7. mentioned

    8. disability, disadvantage

    9. sending of messages using long and short sounds

    10. businessperson