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 ...

When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, he gave the world its first device that could both record and replay sound. A vibrating diaphragm pressed a stylus into soft wax, carving microscopic ...

The idea that the human brain might work similarly arose almost immediately. In 1878, engineer Charles Siemens proposed that “the brain acts like a phonograph,” receiving sensory impressions and ...