By 1881 the Volta Associates had succeeded in improving an Edison tinfoil phonograph significantly.
They filled the groove of its heavy iron cylinder with wax, then instead of wrapping a sheet of foil around it and using a blunt stylus to indent the recording into the foil, as Edison did, they used a chisel-like stylus to engrave the recording into the wax.
The result was a clearer recording.
Rather than apply for a patent at that time, however, they sealed the machine into a metal box and deposited it at the Smithsonian, specifying that it was not to be opened without the consent of two of the three men.
By 1937 Tainter was the only one of the Associates still living, and the box preserved at the Smithsonian was opened with his permission.
For the occasion, descendants of Alexander Graham Bell gathered in Washington, but Tainter, who held a lifelong admiration of Bell, was too ill to attend and remained at home in San Diego.

A recording had been engraved into the wax-filled groove of the modified Edison machine.
When it was played, a voice from the distant past spoke, reciting a quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy ..." and also, whimsically: "I am a Graphophone and my mother was a Phonograph."

Believing the faint voice to be that of her father, Bell's daughter Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor remarked: "That is just the sort of thing father would have said.
He was always quoting from the classics."
The voice was later identified by Tainter as in fact that of her paternal grandfather, Alexander Melville Bell.
The historic recording, not heard since 1937, was played again in 2013 and made available online.

The method of sound reproduction used on the machine was even more interesting than the quotation.
Rather than a conventional stylus and diaphragm, a jet of high pressure air was used.
Tainter had previously recorded, on July 7, 1881:
"This evening about 7 P.M. ... the apparatus being ready the valve upon the top of the air cylinder was opened slightly until a pressure of about 100 lbs. [
69 newtons/scm] was indicated by the gage.
The phonograph cylinder was then rotated, and the sounds produced by the escaping air could be heard, and the words understood a distance of at least 8 feet from the phonograph."
The point of the jet [nozzle] is glass, and [the air jet] could be directed at a single [record] groove.

The associates also experimented with other stylus jets of molten metal, wax, and water.

Most of the disc machines designed at the Volta Lab had their disc mounted on vertical turntables.
The explanation is that in the early experiments the turntable with disc was mounted on the shop lathe, along with the recording and reproducing heads.
Later, when the complete models were built most of them featured vertical turntables.

One interesting exception was a horizontal seven inch turntable.
Although made in 1886, the machine was a duplicate of one made earlier but taken to Europe by Chichester Bell.
Tainter was granted Patent No.
385886 for it on July 10, 1888.
The playing arm is rigid except for a pivoted vertical motion of 90 degrees to allow removal of the record or a return to starting position.
While recording or playing, the record not only rotated but moved laterally under the stylus which thus described a spiral, recording 150 grooves to the inch.

The preserved Bell and Tainter records are of both the lateral cut and the Edison hill-and-dale (up-and-down) styles.
Edison for many years used the "hill-and-dale" method with both cylinder and disc records, and Emile Berliner is credited with the invention of the lateral cut Gramophone record in 1887.
The Volta associates had been experimenting with both types as early as 1881, as is shown by the following quotation from Tainter:
The record on the electro-type in the Smithsonian package is of the other form, where the vibrations are impressed parallel to the surface of the recording material, as was done in the old Scott Phonautograph of 1857, thus forming a groove of uniform depth, but
By 1881 the Volta Associates had succeeded in improving an Edison tinfoil phonograph significantly. They filled the groove of its heavy iron cylinder with wax, then instead of wrapping a sheet of foil around it and using a blunt stylus to indent the recording into the foil, as Edison did, they used a chisel-like stylus to engrave the recording into the wax. The result was a clearer recording. Rather than apply for a patent at that time, however, they sealed the machine into a metal box and deposited it at the Smithsonian, specifying that it was not to be opened without the consent of two of the three men. By 1937 Tainter was the only one of the Associates still living, and the box preserved at the Smithsonian was opened with his permission. For the occasion, descendants of Alexander Graham Bell gathered in Washington, but Tainter, who held a lifelong admiration of Bell, was too ill to attend and remained at home in San Diego.
A recording had been engraved into the wax-filled groove of the modified Edison machine. When it was played, a voice from the distant past spoke, reciting a quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy ..." and also, whimsically: "I am a Graphophone and my mother was a Phonograph."
Believing the faint voice to be that of her father, Bell's daughter Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor remarked: "That is just the sort of thing father would have said. He was always quoting from the classics." The voice was later identified by Tainter as in fact that of her paternal grandfather, Alexander Melville Bell. The historic recording, not heard since 1937, was played again in 2013 and made available online.
The method of sound reproduction used on the machine was even more interesting than the quotation. Rather than a conventional stylus and diaphragm, a jet of high pressure air was used. Tainter had previously recorded, on July 7, 1881:
"This evening about 7 P.M. ... the apparatus being ready the valve upon the top of the air cylinder was opened slightly until a pressure of about 100 lbs. [69 newtons/scm] was indicated by the gage. The phonograph cylinder was then rotated, and the sounds produced by the escaping air could be heard, and the words understood a distance of at least 8 feet from the phonograph." The point of the jet [nozzle] is glass, and [the air jet] could be directed at a single [record] groove.
The associates also experimented with other stylus jets of molten metal, wax, and water.
Most of the disc machines designed at the Volta Lab had their disc mounted on vertical turntables. The explanation is that in the early experiments the turntable with disc was mounted on the shop lathe, along with the recording and reproducing heads. Later, when the complete models were built most of them featured vertical turntables.
One interesting exception was a horizontal seven inch turntable. Although made in 1886, the machine was a duplicate of one made earlier but taken to Europe by Chichester Bell. Tainter was granted Patent No. 385886 for it on July 10, 1888. The playing arm is rigid except for a pivoted vertical motion of 90 degrees to allow removal of the record or a return to starting position. While recording or playing, the record not only rotated but moved laterally under the stylus which thus described a spiral, recording 150 grooves to the inch.
The preserved Bell and Tainter records are of both the lateral cut and the Edison hill-and-dale (up-and-down) styles. Edison for many years used the "hill-and-dale" method with both cylinder and disc records, and Emile Berliner is credited with the invention of the lateral cut Gramophone record in 1887. The Volta associates had been experimenting with both types as early as 1881, as is shown by the following quotation from Tainter:
The record on the electro-type in the Smithsonian package is of the other form, where the vibrations are impressed parallel to the surface of the recording material, as was done in the old Scott Phonautograph of 1857, thus forming a groove of uniform depth, but
Volta Laboratory and Bureau