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A Gift From Our Industry To Our Future Industry
In 1877 Thomas A. Edison demonstrated his invention that gave birth to the phonograph and started our industry. Almost immediately Emile Berliner, inventor of the carbon microphone, patented his talking machine and
the process to mass produce its flat record disks. Since then each generation has stood on the shoulders of those who came before. Thousands of inventions and innovations, all in quest of the last dB, have
transformed Edison�s original noise to signal into almost transparent reproduced sound. Millions of sight and hearing handicapped have enjoyed richer lives. While it is sometimes hard to appreciate, the world continues to be drawn closer with every advance in our technology.
People have driven this progress! The average newbie to our industry may have an appreciation of Thomas Edison�s contributions, but his eyes will glaze over at the mention of Emile Berliner, Lou Burroughs or Dr. C.P.
Boner. We old-timers might be able to attribute an advance, manifested in a product, to a particular company but not necessarily to the staff engineers/designers, product managers and marketing people whose work and
dedication facilitated that advance. Audio historians around the globe, publishing little web sites, magazine articles, books, biblographies and collectors of antique equipment and literature should not be left out.
Putting human faces on the companies, technology and products is a major goal of AudioAnnals. We will contact the living, the families and associates of those who have passed on, dig through the archives and
associate as many as can be found to the products, innovations and audio milestones.
Our full-featured discussion-forum (under construction) will prove to be a valuable tool for collecting photographs, anecdotes, letters, papers etc. Here you will also be able to discuss the technology, ask questions
and make comments on the patents, products and applications.
The Plan:
Visitors to this site should be able to quickly appreciate the Big Picture and then drill down through the resources for as much detail as he desires.
First, we will find (not an easy task before 1975) the audio, sound and acoustics related patents and establish links to the U.S. Patent Office web site. In addition we will render these public documents as DjVu files.
The patents will provide a rough time line for major developments. The Time Line, a work in progress, will be continuously updated.
Inventor names and assignee companies will be added to the Biography and Company pages and cross-linked to the patents.
Building upon this framework we will concentrate on the details of the individual biographies and company/product histories.
Sponsorship:
This site is made possible by annual sponsorship grants from manufacturers, consultants, representatives, organizations, institutions and individuals interested in this gathering of our Audio History. For more
information, please click here.
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