Tainter material reveals A. G. Bell as the man who
suggested the basic lines of research (and furnished the money), and
then allowed his associates to get the credit for many of the inventions
that resulted.

[5] Tainter, _op. cit._ (footnote 1), p. 3.

[6] _Ibid._, p. 5.

[7] _Ibid._, p. 30.

[8] As quoted by _The Washington Herald_, October 28, 1937.

[9] Tainter, _op. cit._ (footnote 1), pp. 28, 29.

[10] The basic distinction between the first Edison patent, and the Bell
and Tainter patent of 1886 was the method of recording. Edison's method
was to _indent_ the sound waves on a piece of tin-foil (wax was included
as a recording material in his English patent); the Bell and Tainter
improvement called for _cutting_ or "_engraving_" the sound waves into a
wax record, with a sharp recording stylus.

The strength of Bell and Tainter patent is indicated by the following
excerpt from a letter written by a Washington patent attorney, S. T.
Cameron, who was a member of the law firm which carried on litigation
for the American Graphophone Co. The letter is dated December 8, 1914,
and is addressed to George C. Maynard, Curator of Mechanical Technology,
U. S. National Museum: "Subsequent to the issuance of the Bell and
Tainter patent No. 341214, Edison announced that he would shortly
produce his 'new phonograph' which, when it appeared, was in fact
nothing but the Bell and Tainter record set forth in their patent
341214, being a record cut or engraved in wax or wax-like material,
although Edison always insisted on calling this record an 'indented'
record, doubtless because his original tin-foil record was an 'indented'
record. Edison was compelled to acknowledge that his 'new phonograph'
was an infringement of the Bell and Tainter patent 341214, and took out
a license under the Bell and Tainter patent and made his records under
that patent as the result of that license."

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVELOPMENT OF THE PHONOGRAPH AT
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL'S VOLTA LABORATORY***

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