I did an earlier post for St. Patrick’s Day about something in Camden, and remembered I’d read somewhere that the Victor Talking Machines were first created there. The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated in 1901 in Camden, and the dog, Nipper, listening to “His Master’s Voice” became the trademark for the company and a symbol found on records for many many years.
I attend auctions frequently, and now and then come across old phonograph cylinders. The disc type records were experimental around the time that the Victor Talking Machine Company came to be, not considered a serious way to make music until over time and with some effort, the fidelity was improved so that records had a wonderful high-fidelity sound. At the time, the powerful voice of Enrico Caruso was an excellent way to market the “talking machines”, as it enhanced and was enhanced by the improved fidelity of records at the time.
It was later in the 1920′s that Victor was purchased by RCA (Radio Corporation of America) and formed the well known company name “RCA Victor”.
As a young girl, living in the Nixon – Edison area of New Jersey off Route 1 until I was 14, I remember passing the Edison Memorial when we were on our way to visit my Aunt, and on many other occasions. This was a teaching moment for my Dad, an Electrical Engineer, an opportunity to tell me about the great man, Thomas Edison, that invented the light bulb and many other things that we still depend on today.
Today commemorates the introduction of the first Stock Market Ticker in New York City in 1867. When you look at pictures of the activity and technology involved with the Stock Market today…literally tracking and investing from our laptop if you use a laptop computer… it’s hard to imagine a day when the latest upswings or downturns had to travel by mail or messager.
While Edison didn’t invent the ticker, that credit goes to an Edward Calahan, Edison is noted for improving on the ticker, and patenting his model. Edison made enough money through the use and sale of this invention to be able to construct his laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ, very close to where I grew up, and it was there that many of the inventions he was noted for were developed, including the light bulb.
Mechanical tickers of one sort or another were used into the 1960′s, and in our baby boomer lifetimes, were replaced by what we have become accustomed to seeing today.
The Edison ticker image above is taken from SparkMuseum website, an interesting site.
I did an earlier post for St. Patrick’s Day about something in Camden, and remembered I’d read somewhere that the Victor Talking Machines were first created there. The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated in 1901 in Camden, and the dog, Nipper, listening to “His Master’s Voice” became the trademark for the company and a symbol found on records for many many years.
