Thomas Alva Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park whose genius ushered in a new era of light and sound for humankind, invented the phonograph at his New Jersey laboratory on this day in history, Aug. 12, ...

MENLO PARK, N.J. (WHTM) — We’re used to sound recordings. Music (in multiple genres), audiobooks, phone messages, recordings of family history, alert boops and beeps on our phones…even the happy ...

Just the other day, I heard one of the earliest popular recorded sambas, Donga’s “Pelo Telefone,” from 1916 and released on an Edison talking record, probably a wax cylinder. A few years later the ...

Today we celebrate Thomas Edison. It is not his birthday but the 127 th anniversary of Edison announcing his first recording invention, the phonograph. According to This Day in History “Edison ...

Imagine if your couch or your coffee maker suddenly started talking to you — or perhaps launched into the chorus of “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain.” What would your reaction be? Consider that, ...

One of the earliest known milestones in recorded history sits nestled in an 18-inch doll. Inventor Thomas Edison embedded small phonographs inside the metal torsos of thousands of dolls that “talked” ...

Phonographs were invented in 1877. The early ones had one needle for recording and another needle for playing. The music was recorded on tinfoil-coated cylinders using a needle to make tiny lines that ...

I love history and I love the Museum! Rex and I are happy that we get to take care of the Museum. There are many fun things to see, including a Thomas Edison phonograph. Thomas Edison was the most ...

In the 1870s, Heinrich Beck founded what would eventually become Beck's Brewery. At about the same time, Thomas Edison was hard at work on creating the first phonograph. It's a safe bet neither man ...