Edison, the inventor of the Phonograph, in an interview with a representative of the Evening Post (New York) has the following to say:—
For musicians the phonograph is going to do wonders, owing to the extreme cheapness with which I can duplicate phonograms and the delicacy with which the apparatus gives out all musical sounds. In the early phonograph of ten years ago, which was a very imperfect and crude affair compared to that of to-day, it was always noticed that musical sounds came out peculiarly well. The machine would whistle or sing far better than it would talk. This peculiarity of the phonograph remains. I have taken down the music of an orchestra, and the result is marvelous. Each instrument can be perfectly distinguished, the strings are perfectly distinct, the violins from the cellos, the wind instruments and the wood are perfectly heard, and even in the notes of a violin the overtones are distinct to a delicate ear. It is going to work wonders for the benefit of music lovers. A piece for any instrument, for the piano or for an orchestra, or an act, or the whole of an opera, musical instruments and voices, can be given out by the phonograph with a beauty of tone and a distinctness past belief, and the duplicating apparatus for phonograms is so cheap an affair that the price of music for the phonograph will be scarcely worth considering. As the phonogram will be practically indestructible by ordinary use, such music can be played over and over again.
