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Thomas Edison: Father of the Phonograph

February 19, 2013 02:02PM
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The producers at BIO.com review hundreds of photos of famous figures each week, from award-winning actors and popular singers, to headliners and scandal makers. While we're digging through these archives, we often come across amazing photos that we're just dying to share. So, without further ado, here's the one image that stands out to us this week:

 

A seemingly exhausted Thomas Edison in his New Jersey laboratory listening to an early phonograph at 5:30am (reasons for early rising unknown).

 

On February 19th, 1878, Thomas Edison created a device that would eventually give everyone on their morning commute to work the ability to pop in some white ear buds and zone out to their favorite tunes.

That's right, we're talking about the phonograph.

Edison can be seen above using headphones to listen to the first device to both record sound and play it back. Upon its creation, Edison chose to record "Mary Had a Little Lamb" as his first test. Later he would bring the device by the offices of the magazine Scientific American and proceed to astonish the minds of the editors when the device "inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a cordial good night."

Without knowing it, Edison may have inadvertently inspired Steve Jobs to create Siri.

also in this article

Thomas Edison

Entrepreneur, Inventor / 1847 - 1931

Inventor Thomas Edison created such great innovations as the electric light bulb, the telephone and the phonograph. A savvy businessman, he held more than a 1,000 patents for his inventions.

Steve Jobs

Entrepreneur / 1955 - 2011

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computers with Steve Wozniak. Under Job's guidance, the company pioneered a series of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone and iPad.

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