Edison's Phonograph Doll was a toy created by the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Company, which was started by William W. Jacques and Lowell Briggs in 1887. The doll was first sold in 1890. The idea for the doll came from Thomas Edison, who invented the first phonograph in 1877. The doll was 22 inches tall and had a small phonograph that played one nursery rhyme. However, the doll did not sell well and was only available for a short time in early 1890. To use the phonograph, a handle had to be turned each time. The wax records used to store the music were easy to damage and could crack or bend quickly. Many children and some adults found the doll and its sounds scary. Edison called the dolls "little monsters."
In 2015, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with the Library of Congress, created a 3D scanning system called IRENE-3D. This system allowed scientists to scan surviving discs and recover the audio from them. By April 2015, eight recordings had been converted into digital files and are available to listen to on the National Park Service website.
Gallery
The following nursery rhymes appeared in the following years:
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (1888)
• Hickory Dickory (1889)
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (1890)
• There Was a Little Girl (1890)
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (1891)
• Little Jack Horner (1890)
• Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (1890)
• Jack and Jill (1890)