Graphophone

an apparatus for reproducing sound; invented by Charles Sumner Tainter in 1880. It is constructed on the principle of the phonograph, with a main cylinder, coated with wax, which revolves against the point of a needle. This in turn connects with a diaphragm at the end of a tube running from the funnel mouthpiece. When words are spoken into the mouthpiece the vibrations of the diaphragm cause the needle to make a record on the wax cylinder. When the machinery is reversed, the sounds are thrown out in their original form.