I have always been amazed by Edison, who had filed 400 patents between 1876 and 1884, at approximately a patent a week. Isn't he remarkable?This is a true story which i came across from one of the Newsletters which was trying to explain about "things ahead of its time". It seems that Edison liked to demonstrate his phonograph by allowing people to speak into the machine and then playing the recording back for them. However, the technology was outside almost everyone's conceptual understanding. Up to that point in history, the only thing that could mimic the sound of one's voice was a ventriloquist, so people thought it had to be a trick. Clergymen came to pronounce it "the devil's work" and to discredit Edison.
But here's the really fun part. Edison used to charge people 25 cents to try to "fool the machine." A person who spoke Latin (a dead language) would speak Latin into it and, of course, it would speak Latin back to the person. People wondered how Edison was able to teach a machine to speak Latin. A person would speak Chinese into the machine and it would speak Chinese back to them. Again, people would wonder how the "Wizard of Menlo Park" taught the machine to speak Chinese.
People simply did not understand the concept of a recording.
This just goes into prove "what a genius, he is".
If you would like to read and know more about this genius do visit:http://www.edison.me.uk
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