Edison and his phonograph. Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931, right), US inventor, operating his favourite invention, the phonograph. This machine was used both to record and play back sound. Here, the handle is being turned to moved a foil-wrapped cylinder past a needle (under sound horn). As the needle vibrates over traces on the foil, sound is produced and amplified by the horn. This is the Menlo Park laboratory, New Jersey, USA, founded in 1876, where Edison built his phonograph. Edison's demonstrations of his phonograph amazed the public, and he became known as The Wizard of Menlo Park". Artwork published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Family Almanac for 1879."