Seth Kaller, Inc.

Five shares of Edison Phonograph Works. Issued to and signed twice by Thomas Edison as President and shareholder-seller. November 25, 1903. Certificate #110. Archival framing.

On exhibit at Fraunces Tavern Restaurant in Manhattan.

Historical Background:

Thomas Edison developed the phonograph as a result of his work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. In 1877 Edison invented a machine that would transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape, which could then be sent over the wires repeatedly. This development led him to speculate that a telephone message could also be recorded in a similar fashion. He experimented with a diaphragm which had an embossing point held against rapidly moving paraffin paper. The speaking vibrations made indentations in the paper. Edison later changed the paper to a metal cylinder with tin foil wrapped around it. The machine had two diaphragm-and-needle units, one for recording and one for playback. When someone spoke into the mouthpiece, the sound vibrations would be indented onto the cylinder by the recording needle in a vertical--or hill and dale--groove pattern.