By Doug Boilesen 2023
This gallery features articles and references
to Edison's invention reported by two small town Nebraska newspapers:
St. Paul's "The Phonograph" and Red Cloud's "The Red
Cloud Chief." The clippings illustrate what communities like
St. Paul and Red Cloud were reading and learning about the phonograph
in the 1880's and early 1890's prior to phonographs being marketed
for the home.
The Phonograph was established
as a weekly newspaper at St. Paul, on
the 2nd day of September, 1878, by Arthur B. Lewis. There are
eleven known newspapers that used "Phonograph" in recognition
of Edison's sound-writing invention as the name of their paper
in the United States between 1878 and 1881. Edison's Phonograph was
invented on December 6, 1877 with its patent issued on February 19,
1878. See Phonographia's Newspapers
Named the Phonograph for more details about the other "Phonograph"
newspapers.
Most of these articles were locally
adapted or reprinted from national newspapers in the era when news
syndication was growing. The same content, therefore, would have been
seen by many readers across the country.
Predictions, cartoons, jokes and other
'news' about the phonograph reflect the addition in popular culture
of a consumer machine that recorded and played back human voices and
sounds.
Request to exhibit Edison's phonograph,
1878.
The Red Cloud Chief,
April 11, 1878, p. 2.
Tom Edison's Career with "Biographical
Notes of a Great Inventor and Electrician," 1878.
The Red Cloud Chief,
April 11, 1878
Humor - An 1880 Patent
Alarm Bed with Phonograph attachment (supposedly built from "Edison's"
plans: "You Old Mucker, Pile Out" spoke the Phonograph).
The Red Cloud Chief,
October 21, 1880
Predictions
in 1881 for houses in 2081: Visitors will
ring the doorbell, speak into a tube and if no one is home
the phonograph will answer "No" and then record any message
the caller wants to leave. "When the lady of the house comes
home she will turn the handle of her phonograph, and hear, in the
very voices of her visitors, what they had to say."
The Red Cloud Chief,
December 15, 1881
How does the Phonograph Work?
The St. Paul Phonograph,
St. Paul, NE, June 5, 1885 via Inter Ocean.
Phonograph's potential
impact on courtship, 1888
The Chadron Democrat,
Chadron, Nebraska February 2, 1888
Kisses reproduced by
Edison's phonograph
The St. Paul Phonograph,
St. Paul, NE, December 12, 1888
The Red Cloud Chief,
October 25, 1889
Edison's Phonograph,
his Mighty Achievement, makes speech no longer proof of the divine
design in man.
The St. Paul Phonograph,
St. Paul, NE, August 30, 1889
Phonograph humor, 1890
The Red Cloud
Republican, January 11, 1890
Sing
at his own funeral by means of a phonograph.
Webster County Argus,
May 22, 1890
Queen of Belgium purchases
several phonographs, 1892
The Red Cloud Chief,
November 4, 1892
Local residents take
their phonograph on trips
The Red Cloud Chief,
August 4, 1893
Phonograph humor, 1895
The Red Cloud
Republican, June 7, 1895
There are also many examples
of phonograph 'concerts' in small towns where the phonograph was being
exhibited at a school, or used for fund raising, or part of a social
gathering at someone's home where the phonograph might have been the
only one in town.
Sociable at the residence
of Mrs. A. H. Brown with supper and one selection on a phonograph
free. The Red Cloud Chief, Red Cloud, NE, November 17, 1893.
Credits: The
Prouty Power Press, circa 1880 The Henry Ford
