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Analysis of a homemade Edison tinfoil phonograph
Jason D Sagers1, Andrew R McNeese, Richard D Lenhart
1Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78713-8029, USA. jdsagers@utexas.edu
Abstract:
Thomas Edison's phonograph was a landmark acoustic invention. In this paper, the phonograph is presented as a tool for education in acoustics. A brief history of the phonograph is outlined and an analogous circuit model that describes its dynamic response is discussed. Microphone and scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (SLDV) measurements were made on a homemade phonograph for model validation and inversion for unknown model parameters. SLDV measurements also conclusively illustrate where model assumptions are violated. The model elements which dominate the dynamic response are discussed.
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