New York Daily Graphic prints the first half-tone photographic image in
a newspaper.
April 26
Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter
demonstrate the photophone, a device in which a mirrored silver disc is made to vibrate by speech
from a speaking tube. Light reflected off the disc is captured in a parabolic dish and focused onto
a selenium cell, where variations in the reflected light are converted into the electrical signals that
are carried to headphones. The laser disc and CD of the 1970s work on a remarkably similar principle.
June 1
Connecticut Telephone Company installs public telephone booths on its premises
in New Haven, the first available for public use in the USA.
October 1
Edison Lamp Works in New Jersey produces its first commercial electric light bulbs.
l
George Eastman and Henry Strong start manufacturing photographic dry plates, using
Eastman's machine, in a rented third-floor space in Rochester, NY .
l
Maurice Leblanc proposes horizontal and vertical scanning by vibrating mirrors
for electrical transmission of images.
l
Method of mechanical scanning of images is outlined by George Carey of Boston,
US in Design and Work.
l
Theoretical studies of the principles of television are published by Adriano de Paiva.
l
Principle of piezo-electric effect—the relationship between voltage generated
and mechanical pressure of crystallographic materials—is developed by Jacques and Pierre Curie.
l
With the $10,000 Volta Prize awarded by the French government in recognition of the
invention of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell establishes a laboratory in Washington DC (the
Volta Laboratory) to study acoustics and sound reproduction in collaboration with his cousin,
chemical engineer Chichester A Bell, and scientist and instrument maker Charles Sumner Tainter.
Charles Tainter develops the lateral-cut technique for cylinder recording. The cutting
stylus moves from side to side and is thus not as destructive of the cylinder's recording surface as
Edison's vertical movement (hill-and-dale).
l
George Eastman and Henry Strong form the Eastman Dry Plate Company .
l
Shelford Bidwell in the US demonstrates equipment for transmitting silhouettes.
The device is preserved in the Science Museum, London.
l
At the Paris Electrical Exhibition,
Clément Ader ranges 80 telephone transmitters across the front of a stage to create a form of
(binaural) stereophonic sound. Musical performances are relayed from the Opéra and the Comédie
Française.
Sir William Crookes anticipates the possibilities of wireless telegraphy,
including tunable receivers, in an article in The Fortnightly Review (51:302).
1883
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Frenchman Albert Londe (1858-1917) records images at the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière
in Paris using a multiple-lens camera.
1884
January 6
German patent
no 30105 for an ‘electric telescope’ is granted to Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (1860-1940)
[right], the 30 marks fee being lent by his future wife. This is a ‘television’
system comprising a scanning disc and selenium cell.
General Post Office opens the first telephone call offices in England for use by
the public.
October 10
First edition of weekly UK journal The Amateur Photographer. It consists of 16 pages
and includes one illustration, an engraving of 'Marion's Miniature Camera'. It does not include any
photographs.
Picture source: Terra Media Archives, Amateur Photographer
l
Estimated 40 tons of silver and three tons of gold are used annually in the UK
photographic industry.
l
Emile Berliner makes a cylinder recording of the Lord’s Prayer—the oldest
record in BBC Record Library.
l
The first long-distance telephone cable in the US is installed between New York and
Boston.
Chronomedia index
German patent
no 30105 for an ‘electric telescope’ is granted to Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (1860-1940)
[right], the 30 marks fee being lent by his future wife. This is a ‘television’
system comprising a scanning disc and selenium cell.
First edition of weekly UK journal The Amateur Photographer. It consists of 16 pages
and includes one illustration, an engraving of 'Marion's Miniature Camera'. It does not include any
photographs.