Today in Wheeling History: August 18--Hermann Schuette, a German living in Wheeling, received a patent for improving the telegraphone - an early machine that recorded sound on metal disks - by creating a way to keep the disk moving at the same speed under the recording magnet, no matter where on the disk it was recording (1908).
Hermann Schuette, a German-born inventor residing in Wheeling, West Virginia, made significant improvements to the telegraphone, an early magnetic sound recording device. On October 10, 1907, Schuette filed a patent application for an innovative disk-based telegraphone design, which was granted on August 18, 1908 (US896416A). His invention came about a decade after Valdemar Poulsen's original telegraphone invention in 1898 and addressed a key challenge in disk-based recording systems.
The basic telegraphone used a steel disk or wire as a recording medium. When someone spoke into it, their voice was converted into electrical signals that made a small magnet move. As the disk or wire passed by this magnet, it left tiny magnetic "marks" on the steel. During playback, these magnetic marks would create electrical signals that could be turned back into sound. However, on a disk, the outside edge moves faster than the inside when it spins, potentially causing sound quality to change as the recording moved from the outside to the inside of the disk.
Schuette's clever solution was to make the disk spin faster as the recording moved towards the center. He designed a complex system with a governor, a cam arm, and a special "dog" that could move in two ways. This system would automatically speed up the disk's spinning as the recording magnet moved towards the center, keeping the speed of the disk passing under the magnet constant throughout the recording process. This innovation ensured consistent sound quality across the entire disk.
Despite the telegraphone not becoming widely used, inventions like Schuette's helped advance the field of magnetic recording, which later led to technologies we use today.
To learn more: (https://shorturl.at/NTzmc) (https://shorturl.at/VZxeY) (https://shorturl.at/XyD2F)
Photo credits: U.S. Patent Office
Hermann Schuette, a German-born inventor residing in Wheeling, West Virginia, made significant improvements to the telegraphone, an early magnetic sound recording device. On October 10, 1907, Schuette filed a patent application for an innovative disk-based telegraphone design, which was granted on August 18, 1908 (US896416A). His invention came about a decade after Valdemar Poulsen's original telegraphone invention in 1898 and addressed a key challenge in disk-based recording systems.
The basic telegraphone used a steel disk or wire as a recording medium. When someone spoke into it, their voice was converted into electrical signals that made a small magnet move. As the disk or wire passed by this magnet, it left tiny magnetic "marks" on the steel. During playback, these magnetic marks would create electrical signals that could be turned back into sound. However, on a disk, the outside edge moves faster than the inside when it spins, potentially causing sound quality to change as the recording moved from the outside to the inside of the disk.
Schuette's clever solution was to make the disk spin faster as the recording moved towards the center. He designed a complex system with a governor, a cam arm, and a special "dog" that could move in two ways. This system would automatically speed up the disk's spinning as the recording magnet moved towards the center, keeping the speed of the disk passing under the magnet constant throughout the recording process. This innovation ensured consistent sound quality across the entire disk.
Despite the telegraphone not becoming widely used, inventions like Schuette's helped advance the field of magnetic recording, which later led to technologies we use today.
To learn more: (https://shorturl.at/NTzmc) (https://shorturl.at/VZxeY) (https://shorturl.at/XyD2F)
Photo credits: U.S. Patent Office
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