by In 1877 Thomas Edison successfully recorded a voice and played it back; he called his device a phonograph. 10 years later, Emil Berliner had upgraded to using discs instead of cylinders for better playback sound, but the system still relied on manual hand cranking. Berliner approached Delaware native Eldridge Reeves Johnson, who was working as a machinist, to develop a motor that would play the discs at a continuous speed. The patent was issued in 1898, and after a series of legal setbacks and maneuvers, he founded the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901; origins of the “Victor” name are questionable, but the company’s machines came to be called Victors and Victrolas.
The company produced some of the most famous recording artists in the world at the time, selling millions of records and machines. The company eventually expanded to cover 10 city blocks in Camden, NJ and generate millions in sales annually. With fortuitous timing, the company was sold to RCA in 1929.
The Johnson Victrola Museum in Dover, Del., is a tribute to Johnson and the history of the Victrola. It includes many phonographs, recordings, memorabilia, etc. There are tons of tchotchkes and other representations of Nipper, the mixed fox/bull terrier that became iconic as the representation of the Victor Talking Machine Company and later RCA. Nipper was a real dog who lived in England, and the 1899 painting of Nipper listening to a phonograph is called “His Master’s Voice”.
The machines on display (and the cases housing them) are real works of art.
We got to listen to some play (see short video at right), as well, a brief transport to another era.
This is an early recording of Irish-American tenor John McCormack, who was one of the biggest stars of the early 20th century and a prolific artist on the Victrola record label.
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