Phonograph cylinder

John Philip Sousa is one of the most famous music composers. Born in Washington D.C in the mid-1800s, this music inventor is very well known by marchers. Mr. Sousa has composed 136 military marches. Not only was he a terrific song writer, but he also invented the widely used sousaphone The son of two immigrants, John Philip Sousa was born in Washington D.C. on November 6, 1854. John was thee third of ten children and his parents’ names were Antonio Sousa and Maria Elizabeth. He began his musical…

Inventing Solutions Thomas Edison was born in Millan Ohio on February 11th, 1847. He did not learn to talk until he was almost 4 years old. While in primary school, Thomas often day dreamed and was commonly characterized as being mentally slow by his teachers. Because of those comments, young Edison’s mother took him out of school, and home schooled him. In 1854 his family moved to Port Huron Michigan. Growing up, Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains. He later on became a telegraph…

For as long as we can remember, people have been communicating using their voices. Today this has not changed; however how those voices are heard, where they can be heard and by whom has changed drastically. What at one time was limited to only what was being said or written, at the time it was being documented and only heard or read by those in the immediate vicinity; can now be heard by anyone, anywhere in the world at any time. This is possible because of the dramatic advances in recording…

Since theatre first became popular in the times of the Greek, the use of sound to enhance theatrical experience has been prominent. However, many leaps have been made since then to improve a sound designer’s abilities to create different and intricate sounds in their design processes. The evolution of sound playback systems is a key element in the development of sound design in theatre. Through exploration of the history of sound playback, the current available playback systems on the market and…

John Philip Sousa was an American composer of the late Romantic era. He is most known today for his role in the American military and for his patriotic marches. Being an American composer greatly influenced his musical style, I think, as his music is very nationalistic. John Philip Sousa was born in Washington D.C. on November 6th, 1854. His father, John Antonio Sousa, was Portuguese and his mother, Maria Elisabeth Trinkaus, was German. Sousa was the third of ten children. John Sousa began his…

The great inventor Thomas Alva Edison is credited for the creation of the phonograph, the movie camera, and one of the most useful and life altering inventions that sparked the innovation of the technology used to this day. There is no doubt that Edison was brilliant and excelled at what he did. However, there is one major misconception that is associated with him, and that is he is the sole inventor of the light bulb. From a young age, people are taught that everything from the idea to the…

Vinyl Record Materials Materials to used to make records have evolved and changed several times over the years. The earliest disc records from 1889-1894 were made of various materials including wax and. Rubber. Shortly after, a shellac based compound had been experiment with leading to it becoming standard. Each manufactures exact formula varied, but they typically coated records with a shellac (wax) resin Shellac The materials typically used to make for a shellacked disc where cardboard and…

Between 1916 and 1949 a few other companies offered colored shellac discs, including a blue-shellacked series from Columbia during the 1930s and chocolate colored pressings from a budget label “Perfect Records” prior to the 1930s. In 1949 when RCA Victor launched their 45-RPM format they began color-coding their records based on genre calcification. They classifications are as follows: Black Vinyl – Pop Pressings (Prefix 47) Green Vinyl – Country Music (Prefix 48) Red Vinyl - “Red Seal”…