Talking Doll Record: Hear the Audio

• Twinkle, twinkle, little star

  
  

  Record format: Edison talking doll tin cylinder Location: Edison Laboratory, West Orange, New Jersey Recording date: circa November 1888 NPS object catalog number: EDIS 1279

  Credit / Author:

  National Park Service

  Date created:

  10/14/2020

 

The record groove surface viewed under a microscope.  The nearly uniform groove width shows Edison's early square "chisel-cut" recording technique, used prior to August 1889. 

National Park Service

Specifications of the tin cylinder phonograph record:

• Estimated original outer diameter (if not misshaped): ~60.4 mm (~2-3/8 inch)
  
• Estimated original inner diameter (if not misshaped): ~53.7 mm (~2-1/8 inch)
  
• Width: ~ 11.4 mm (~7/16 inch)
  
• Thickness: ~ 3.4 mm (~1/8 inch)
  
• Groove threads per inch: 50
  
• Groove type: Vertical cut, nearly uniform groove width.
  
• Recording/playback speed: Unknown. (The playback speed/pitch of the recording as presented here was set by ear.)

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