Antique Dictating Machines
Thomas A. Edison invented the Phonograph, a machine that could record and reproduce the human voice using a tinfoil covered cylinder, in 1877. (See photograph to left.) The 1878 photograph to the right shows Edison with a phonograph. In 1878, Edison listed ten uses for the phonograph. At the top of the list was "Letter writing and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer." At the same time, he began to sell phonographs intended for use in offices. However, the machines did not work well, sales were limited, and the machines did not have a significant effect on office work. It was reported that "Several hundred of the machines were put upon the market, and quite a number were sold, but the Phonograph failed to make a success, for the reason that the machine was not only a clumsy piece of mechanism, frequently getting out of adjustment, but more especially because of the fact that the surface upon which the record was made was pliable, and likely to be obliterated by a mere accidental pressure upon it." (Harper's Weekly, July 1, 1886. For illustrations of the phonograph see Harper's Weekly, Mar. 30, 1878.) A later account stated that the defects of Edison's first phonograph "consisted chiefly in a want of distinctness in the articulation of the reproduced sounds. This defect was so great that it was almost impossible to understand the reproduction unless the original sounds had been heard by the listener. Some consonants, too, were much less perfectly recorded than others. These imperfections were due to the intractable nature of the tin-foil used for receiving the indentations, and to the fact that the same diaphragm was employed both for receiving and reproducing the sounds. Moreover, the great delicacy of adjustment needed made its results very unsatisfactory, except in the hands of an expert manipulator." (The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Jan. 1889) By 1879, Edison turned his attention to the electric light bulb. Later Edison stated, "I finished the first phonograph more than ten years ago. It remained more or less of a toy. The germ of something wonderful was perfectly distinct, but I tried the impossible with it, and when the electric light business assumed commercial importance, I threw everything overboard for that." (Scientific American, Oct. 27, 1887)
Alexander Graham Bell, his cousin Chichester A. Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter developed the first practical machine for recording and reproducing speech. Their Graphophone used wax cylinders. Their first Graphophone was made in 1885 and patented and illustrated in Harper's Weekly in 1886. In 1886, Tainter designed a dictating machine, which was mounted on a sewing machine table with a foot treadle to supply power. The commercial Graphophone, which is illustrated to the right, went into production in the fall of 1887. In 1888, Tainter wrote that "Graphophones are used in Washington in both houses of Congress for work in connection with reporting the proceedings, and also by members for the dictation of their correspondence, etc. Many of the leading stenographers and lawyers of Washington are also using the machines." (Electrical World, July 14, 1888) At the Du Pont black powder manufacturing company, Francis G. du Pont bought a Graphophone dictating machine in 1890. (JoAnne Yates, Control through Communication, 1989, p. 211)
After seeing a Graphophone dictating machine, Edison developed a similar machine, which was introduced to the market in 1888. (For illustrations, see Harper's Weekly, June 9, 1888.) Notwithstanding the glowing statement by Tainter that is quoted above, neither Graphophones nor Edison Phonographs sold well for office use in the late 1880s or early 1890s. A cylinder held only a few minutes of recording, and the machines were expensive. In 1894-95, the Edison Class M was $225 and the Graphophone Type K was $150. However, in 1895, the Graphophone Type N was introduced at $40. In 1897, the Columbia Phonograph Co. advertised the Universal Graphophone for office use. This machine was used both to record dictation and to play it back for transcription. It was $50 with a wind-up motor that ran for an hour on one winding or a D.C. motor that ran off a battery, and $60 with a 110-volt A.C. motor. A machine for shaving cylinders so they could be reused was $25.
Edison introduced a new Business Phonograph in 1904. The Edison Business Phonograph was advertised during 1904-12. Commercial Graphophone dictating machines were advertised in business magazines during 1904-07. A 1906 ad claimed that the Westinghouse Co., the Larkin Co., and Sears, Roebuck each used "more than several hundred machines." Another 1906 ad claimed that Westinghouse used about 250 Commercial Graphophone machines in its Pittsburgh offices. Around 1907 (in any case by 1908), Graphophone dictating machines began to use the Dictaphone trademark.
Photographs of early office interiors and business school classrooms suggest that office use of Graphophones and Phonographs was very limited until around 1906 but then increased rapidly. The earliest photographs we have seen of dictating equipment in use in offices were taken at Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building, which was completed in 1904 for the Larkin mail-order company in Buffalo, NY. The photographs, which are in Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin (1987), show numerous Graphophone machines. The fact that the machines were built into custom-designed desks suggests that the machines were installed in 1904, and clothing and hair styles suggest that the photographs were taken soon after the building opened. A similar built-in Columbia Business Graphophone system from the Columbia Phonograph Co. is pictured in the 1906 ad to the right.
The next earliest photograph that we have seen of dictating equipment in use in an office
is the 1906 image to the left, which shows a large number of transcribing machines
in the Stenographic Department at Sears, Roebuck, another mail-order company.
Still, Frank C. Spalding, Stenographer's Business Practice, 1907, which "furnishes advanced office practice for stenographers," does not even mention dictating equipment.
Yates reports that "By 1911 a government study found that many large companies, such as the Pennsylvania Railroad, were using dictating machines in conjunction with typewriters to eliminate or reduce the more expensive use of stenographers. In fact, the study reported, in the Pennsylvania Railroad's correspondence department, 'the installation of these machines enabled the typewriters [i.e., typists] to produce from 60 to 80 letters per day, whereas under the old system the average output of each typewriter was only 30 to 40 letters daily.'" (JoAnne Yates, Control through Communication, 1989, p. 45) The 1911 catalog of Wilson's Modern Business College in Seattle, WA, says that students are trained to use the Edison Business Phonograph, and the 1913 catalog of the American Business College in Minneapolis, MN, includes a photograph of an Edison dictating machine and indicates that students receive "Dictaphone Practice."
Until 1911, the cases of Graphophone
(aside from those that were built into desktops) and Edison machines were brown wooden
boxes similar to those used on domestic phonographs. (Photograph to right shows
a 1911 Edison Business Phonograph.) These boxes held motors. Beginning
in 1912, advertisements for
the Edison Dictating Machine and Dictaphone show that the wooden boxes had
been replaced by black metal ones.
Edison machines began to use the Ediphone trademark at the end of 1917.
Late nineteenth century and (at least in the case of Edison products) early 20th century dictating machines consisted of a single unit that was used both to record and to reproduce speech. By 1920, however, the following description applied: "The complete dictating machine equipment involves four units: first, the dictating machine which receives the message from the dictator and inscribes it on a cylinder; second, the wax cylinders on which the messages are recorded; third, the transcribing machine which reproduces into the ear of the typist the words inscribed on the cylinders by the dictating machine; and finally, the shaving machine which shaves or scrapes the record of former dictation from the wax cylinders and gives them a smooth surface so that they can be used again." (W. J. Graham, Cost Accounting and Office Equipment, American Technical Society, 1929, p. 209) In the 1920s, each cylinder held approximately 1,000-1,200 words and could be reused up to 100-130 times.
In 1924, the Dictaphone Model 7 dictating machine was $190. The Model 7 transcribing machine was $175. The addition of a stand to either machine increased the price by $5. The shaving machine was $85. Wax cylinders were $.60 each. Ediphone units had approximately the same prices. (The American Digest of Business Machines, 1924)
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