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1904: Eugene Lauste Makes Sound
Eugene Lauste had designed and constructed a light gate as early as 1890, but it would be fourteen years before he would successfully build a primitive sound-on-film apparatus, which he would later refer to as ‘little more than a toy.’ The film was cranked through a narrow slit in a box within which was a mirror attached to a diaphragm. Sound vibrations would cause the mirror to reflect light across the slit to provide a crude confirmation of Lauste’s theory. The apparatus made use of earphones because it had no amplification system.
Lauste was in attendance at the 1904 World’s Fair (Louisiana Purchase Exposition) in St. Louis and whilst there he approached the ragtime composer Scott Joplin and asked him to play a number that could be recorded on Lauste’s sound film. The number Joplin played for the recording is unknown – although it may have been ‘Cascades’ which Joplin wrote specifically for the occasion of the fair – and the film has long since been lost. Had it survived, it would have been the only filmed record of Joplin in existence. [ADD]
(Sources: http://www.amps.net/newsletters/issue22/22_lauste.htm; http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/eyman.htm; http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=features&Id=441)
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