Charles Sumner Tainter, son of George and Abigail Sanger Tainter, was born on April 25, 1854, in Watertown, Massachusetts, near Boston. All four of his grandfathers served in the Revolutionary War, and his father was an inventor with several patents to his name. In his memoirs Tainter describes his father as "a man of much force of character and inventive ability" and his mother as a woman of "high character and beloved by all." His school years left him with an absolute horror of public speaking that followed him all his life. He completed public school without much enthusiasm and then became essentially self-educated, studying only subjects that interested him. He obtained scientific and technical books from the public library, and was an avid reader of "Scientific American" to which his father subscribed. In his memoirs he recalls, "I believe that this journal had a great influence in molding my thoughts in mechanical and scientific directions as I grew up with it and used to read it regularly."

In 1870, he started to work for Charles Williams Jr., a manufacturer of telegraphs and electrical apparatus in Boston, who paid him $5.00 a week. Two years later he became associated with Johnson and Whittlemore, also manufacturers of electrical instruments in Boston. He stayed with them until the business folded in 1873, and then joined Alvan Clark and Sons, a well known manufacturing company of large telescopes and optical instruments in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. As a technician at the Alvan Clark and Sons Company, Tainter assisted with the building of the Equatorial Telescope mounted in the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. He also constructed much of the equipment that was used during the U.S. Government Expedition to observe the transit of Venus in the South Pacific on December 8, 1874. The Secretary of the Navy appointed Tainter a member of this expedition, and Tainter reveals his role in this event vividly in his memoirs: "Early History of Charles Sumner Tainter." (see Series 1, Box 1.) [Note: Henry Draper, (1837-1882), a scientist whose collection of papers is also stored in the Archives Center, Series 3, Box 6, was a superintendent of the government commission for the observation of the transit of Venus.] After he returned from the expedition in 1875, he rejoined Alvan Clark and Sons Company and stayed there for three years.

Tainter started his own business in 1878 in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, constructing scientific instruments. It was in Cambridgeport, that he met Alexander Graham Bell. A year later Tainter accepted Bell's proposal to join him in Washington, D.C. to establish a small laboratory. After a series of experiments they developed the radiophone, an instrument for transmitting sound to a distance through the agency of light, using sensitive celenium cells. The radiophone was shown at the Electrical Exhibition in Paris in1881, where Tainter was awarded a gold medal and diploma for his part in the invention. Between 1879 and 1880, Tainter and Bell also experimented with and tried to improve on Edison's talking machine.

The Academie des Sciences of Paris awarded Bell the Volta prize in 1880 for his development of the telephone. The prize included the sum of $10,000 which Bell used a year later to establish the Volta Laboratory Association, a small research laboratory in Washington, D.C. He asked his cousin, Chichester A. Bell, a chemist from London, and Tainter to join him in this venture.

Although they devoted much of their attention to electrical and acoustical research, most of their efforts went into the improvement of Edison's talking machine. Edison had used tinfoil as the recording medium for his first phonograph in 1877, but then abandoned the project and turned his attention to the electric light and distribution system. (see William J. Hammer Collection, #69) Chichester Bell and Tainter meanwhile saw the tinfoil as a major obstacle in any further development of the instrument, and after much experimenting came upon the idea of replacing the fragile tinfoil with a wax compound onto which they could engrave the sound waves directly. This invention was patented in May 1886 under the name Graphaphone. It was an important step in the development of the phonograph since for the first time it was possible to manufacture the device commercially. Tainter recorded his experiments on the graphaphone in thirteen notebooks ("Home Notes"), and two large volumes of technical drawings and sketches (see: Series 2, Boxes 1, 2, and 3).

Although Bell and Tainter recognized Edison as the inventor of the talking machine, and wanted to work with him and carry the costs for all further experiments in exchange for half the share of the profits, Edison rejected this proposal. He felt that they wanted to steal his invention.

Eventually Edison sued the Volta Graphaphone Company (1894), and the American Graphaphone Company (1895/96). In 1885 the partnership between Bell, his cousin, and Tainter was dissolved, and the graphaphone rights were given to a group of Washington court stenographers who felt that the graphaphone could best be utilized as a dictaphone. The group subsequently formed the Volta Graphaphone Company where Tainter continued to work for several years. The Volta Graphaphone Company was reorganized two years after its formation as the American Graphaphone Company. In June of 1886, Tainter married Lila R. Munro, daughter of William J. Munro of Newport, Rhode Island. Only two years later he suffered a severe case of pneumonia which was to incapacitate him intermittently for the rest of his life.

The Volta Graphaphone Company sold the foreign rights for the graphaphone in the Spring of 1889, to form the International Graphaphone Company. Tainter became associated with this new company and went to Europe to look after the interests there. In the same year the graphaphone was exhibited at the Paris Exposition and Tainter was awarded the Decoration of "Officier de L Instruction Publique" from the French government for his invention of the graphaphone. Upon his return from Europe Tainter established a factory for the International Graphaphone Company in Hartford, Connecticut in1889. When he left the company in 1890, he launched his own laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he continued to improve on the phonograph whenever his health would permit, and a number of new inventions were patented.

At the Chicago Exposition in 1893, Tainter was asked to manage the exhibition of more than a hundred machines for the American Graphaphone Company. In 1897, a fire destroyed Tainter's Washington laboratory and much valuable material was lost, including three volumes of his "Home-Notes" which contained some of the findings of his experiments on the graphaphone. Three years later the city of Philadelphia awarded the John Scott medal to Chichester Bell and Tainter for their work in connection with the graphaphone.

Tainter's chronic illness forced him to give up his work frequently and instead seek treatment and relief in various sanatoriums and spas both in Europe and in the United States. He and his wife eventually moved to California, and settled in San Diego in June of 1903, to enjoy the better climate there. Again Tainter established a laboratory and continued to work whenever his illness would allow him. In 1915 he was awarded a gold medal and diploma for his work with the graphaphone at the San Francisco Exposition. Tainter's wife died in 1924. Four years later he married Laura Fontaine Onderdonk, widow of Charles G. Onderdonk.

At the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Pittsburgh in December 1934, Tainter was made an Emeritus Life Member, having been a fellow for 55 years. His obituary also mentions that in 1915 Tainter was awarded a gold medal at the Panama Pacific Exposition for his work on the graphaphone.

Tainter died on April 20, 1940. He was considered an inventor, a physicist, and a manufacturer of electrical apparatus, but most of all he was know as the father of the talking machine.

Scope and Content

Charles Sumner Tainter has been recognized as the father of the talking machine, and much of the material in this collection represents his experimental work on the graphaphone.

Alexander Graham Bell, in partnership with his cousin Chichester Bell, and Tainter, established the Volta Laboratory Association in 1881, which stayed in operation until 1885. During this time Tainter recorded his experiments on the graphaphone in thirteen note books or "Home Notes" and in two large volumes of technical drawings and notes. Volumes 9, 10, and 13 of Tainter's "Home Notes" were destroyed in a fire in Tainter's Laboratory in Washington, D.C., in September 1897. The other ten volumes included in this collection were needed in a law suit and were in possession of Tainter’s attorney at the time of the fire. (see Container List) One of these volumes contains very exact drawings for a multiple record duplicator (1897-1908), the other shows rough sketches of his experiments with various apparatuses (1883-84). Loose papers found in the "Home Notes" notebooks have been placed behind the notebooks. Tainter also wrote an unpublished, undated manuscript on "The Talking Machine and Some Little Known Facts in Connection with Its Early Development." Also included is a binder with the printed patent specifications of Tainter, Alexander Graham Bell, and Chichester Bell (1880-1903). In addition, there are Records of Court testimony in suits involving the phonograph (1894-1896).

Tainter's memoirs: "Early History of Charles Sumner Tainter" give a very personal account of his childhood and youth, and of his later role as a member of the U. S. Government Expedition to observe the transit of Venus in 1874. Certificates, photographs, clippings, some correspondence, handwritten notes, and articles on the history of the phonograph complete the collection of his papers.

Except for one, the medals awarded to Tainter are stored in the Division of Mechanisms in the NMAH.

This collection presents a fairly comprehensive picture of the early development of the phonograph and Tainter's substantial contributions to the project.

Provenance

Transferred from Division of Electricity 10/15/1984.

Bibliography

Frow, George L. and Sefl, Albert F. The Edison Cylinder Phonographs 1877 - 1929. Kent, Great Britain: Flo-Print, 1978.

Juttlemann, Herbert. Phonographen und Grammaphone. Braunschweig, Germany: Klinkhardt and Biermann, 1979.

Marty, Daniel. The Illustrated History of Phonographs Transl. Douglas Tubbs. New York: VILO Inc., 1981.

The Phonograph and How to Use It. The National Phonograph Company. New York: Allen Koenigsberg,1971 (c. 1900).

Phonographs and Gramophones. An Edison Centenary Exhibition. Edinburgh: The Royal Scottish Museum, 1977.

Phonographs and Gamaphones. Edison Phonograph Centenary Symposium. Edinburgh: The Royal Scottish Museum, 1977.

Proudfoot, Christopher. Collecting Phonographs and Gramaphones. Christie's International Collectors Series. New York City: Mayflower Books, 1980.

"A Wonderful Invention." A Brief History of the Phonograph from Tinfoil to the L.P. Washington, D.C.: An Exhibition in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress in Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Invention of the Phonograph. 1977.

Container List

Box        Folder

Series 1: PAPERS, 1878-1937

Series 2: LABORATORY NOTES, 1881-1908

Series 3: ARTIFACTS

Three small boxes, one containing a medal, the other two containing just parts to which the medals are attached, are located at the Division of Mechanisms.

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