That changed in 1877 when Thomas Edison unveiled his phonograph. It wasn’t the first such device to record and play back audio, but it was the first generally reliable one: scratchy and nearly ...

On December 7, 1877 Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph at the New York City offices of the nation's leading technical weekly publication, Scientific American. The following report set off ...

On December 7, 1877, Edison conducted the first ... and waxes for disc and cylinder phonograph records, nickel-iron alkaline electric storage batteries, and improvements to the manufacture of Portland ...

In 1877, after Edison invented the phonograph, Johnson took the machine ... and “A Christmas Carol” in 1843. Thomas Nast’s drawings of jolly Santa Claus debuted in 1862.