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TIMOTHY C FABRIZIO
GEORGE F PAUL

This article is based on a presentation given by the authors at the 2000 ARSC Conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina .

SECTION Part I: The Stroh "Automatic Phonograph"

The name "Augustus Stroh" is one that surfaces rather infrequently in the study of early talking machines and recordings. His best-known contribution in this field was the violin which bears his name: an instrument specially constructed for use with early acoustical sound recordings. The mechanically amplified Stroh violins and violas were capable of being "heard" by early recording machines, and thus their sound could be reproduced for public consumption. This development was particularly helpful in early recordings of string ensembles. And yet, Augustus Stroh had constructed pioneering sound apparatus for nearly 25 years before the appearance of his violin. Because his brilliant designs had little impact on the industry or popular culture, they have been either forgotten or misunderstood for over a century.

Augustus Stroh's relationship with the phonograph began within weeks of its invention by Thomas Edison. An Englishman named Henry Edmunds visited Edison at Menlo Park in December 1877 and was given a demonstration of the new Tinfoil Phonograph. After his return to England in January 1878, Edmunds related his first-hand account of the talking machine to a London newspaper. William Henry Preece, Assistant Engineer and Electrician of the General Post Office, read the account in the 18 January 1878 issue of The Times . Preece contacted Edmunds, and arranged for him to describe the principles of the Phonograph to a gifted German mechanic living in London: Augustus Stroh. In less than two weeks, Stroh had completed the first phonograph built in England. It was loosely based on Edison's dimensions, but incorporated retractable half-nuts to facilitate rapid return to the beginning of the recording. This first Stroh phonograph was demonstrated at the 1 February 1878 meeting of the Royal Institution. A well-known woodcut shows Preece speaking into the machine.

Augustus Stroh immediately saw the potential for improved reproduction from Edison's crude Tinfoil Phonograph. He set out to re-cast the invention within the parameters of a scientific instrument, capable of accurate reproduction of speech and music. Twenty-seven days after demonstrating his first phonograph, Preece and Stroh showed a

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