Edison's Phonograph Talks Back
Next: December 6, 2026
The day a machine spoke.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the anniversary of 6 December 1877, the day Thomas Edison's tinfoil phonograph was finished. His machinist, John Kruesi, built it from Edison's sketch: a grooved cylinder wrapped in tin foil and turned by a hand crank. Edison recited the nursery rhyme 'Mary had a little lamb' into it, adjusted the reproducer, and heard his own voice played back. 'I never was so taken back in my life,' he recalled. The next day he showed the machine to the editors of Scientific American in New York.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but it is a lovely day to listen. The US National Park Service, which cares for Edison's laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, shares early recordings online, among them Edison reciting the same rhyme in 1927 to show how he made the first record. Or record a voice message for someone you love; the idea started here.
Did you know
- That first tinfoil recording was not kept and no longer exists.
- In an earlier test with waxed paper, the machine gave back only 'ary ad elll am', yet Edison's team 'let out a yell of satisfaction'.
- Some later accounts dated the invention to 12 August 1877, but the diary of Edison's assistant Charles Batchelor records the machine being finished on 6 December.
Coming up next
- International Civil Aviation Day · December 7, 2026
- Georges Méliès's Birthday · December 8, 2026
- International Anti-Corruption Day · December 9, 2026
- Human Rights Day · December 10, 2026
- Nobel Prize Day · December 10, 2026
- International Mountain Day · December 11, 2026