We all know what the equipment is called, but do you know who created it? Many of music’s most influential technological innovations were created roughly a century ago. Whether or not they are still used today in their original form, these are important pieces of history that should be known. The Phonograph Also known as a Gramophone, the phonograph was first successfully demonstrated in 1877 by Thomas Edison. While there were several preceding inventions that could record noise, Edison’s was the first to both record and reproduce. At first, the sound was recorded to a tin foil sheet wrapped around a cylinder, but as improvements were made by Alexander Graham Bell at the Volta laboratory, the wax cylinder was introduced. The wax record would not be available until 1931. The Microphone Sure, the tin can phone existed for centuries before, but the carbon microphone was developed and demonstrated in England by David Edward Hughes. Hughes is recognized as the man who made the revelation that loosely packing carbon granules into a confined space results in the recording of varying electrical currents and sonic waves. Thomas Edison invented the same device, and was first to the punch for this patent along with thousands of others. Radio Guglielmo Marconi took several years to construct the first radiotelegraphy mechanism, beginning his work in 1894 Reginald Fessenden made the first AM radio transmission of speech in 1900. Six years later, he would complete the first two way cross-Atlantic transmission. In 1910, Lee de Forest would begin public broadcasting. (Forest also invented the first amplifier.) Headphones Nathaniel Baldwin invented the first headphones in 1910. He sold hundreds of units to the US Navy, constructing each by hand himself. Headphones weren’t made commercial until the 1960’s, when stereo was introduced. What other musical inventions shook the landscape? Which inventions of tomorrow do you predict your grandchildren will be using? Stop by Rock of Ages to see how the most important developments in music technology have shaped our current landscape!