Thomas Edison completed his first working model of the phonograph on August 12, 1877. He debuted the invention later that year and amazed the public with his simple demonstration of how to capture the human voice. | American Experience | PBS

On this day in 1878, Thomas Edison patented the phonograph, the first voice recorder. In 1877, the invention began using a combination of the phonautograph, the telegraph and the telephone. Edison’s goal was to transcribe messages from the telegraph to a piece of paper tape. The transcribed messages would then be in a format that allowed the individual to send out the same message repeatedly via a telegraph. After Edison realized that his device may have other applications in relation to the tel

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