n a pond undisturbed. Being now
ready for manufacturing, but requiring more facilities, Edison increased
his real-estate holdings by purchasing a large tract of land lying
contiguous to what he already owned. At one end of the newly acquired
land two unpretentious brick structures were erected, equipped
with first-class machinery, and put into commission as shops for
manufacturing phonographs and their record blanks; while the capacious
hall forming the third story of the laboratory, over the library, was
fitted up and used as a music-room where records were made.

Thus the modern Edison phonograph made its modest debut in 1888, in what
was then called the "Improved" form to distinguish it from the original
style of machine he invented in 1877, in which the record was made on a
sheet of tin-foil held in place upon a metallic cylinder. The "Improved"
form is the general type so well known for many years and sold at the
present day--viz., the spring or electric motor-driven machine with the
cylindrical wax record--in fact, the regulation Edison phonograph.

It did not take a long time to find a market for the products of the
newly established factory, for a world-wide public interest in the
machine had been created by the appearance of newspaper articles from
time to time, announcing the approaching completion by Edison of his
improved phonograph. The original (tin-foil) machine had been sufficient
to illustrate the fact that the human voice and other sounds could
be recorded and reproduced, but such a type of machine had sharp
limitations in general use; hence the coming into being of a type that
any ordinary person could handle was sufficient of itself to insure a
market. Thus the demand for the new machines and wax records grew apace
as the corporations organized to handle the business extended their
lines. An examination of the newspaper files of the years 1888, 1889,
and 1890 will reveal the great excitement caused by the bringing out of
the new phonograph, and how frequently and successfully it was employed
in public entertainments, either for the whole or part of an evening.
In this and other ways it became popularized to a still further extent.
This led to the demand for a nickel-in-the-slot machine, which, when
established, became immensely popular over the whole country. In its
earlier forms the "Improved" phonograph was not capable of such
general non-expert handling as is the machine of the present day, and
c