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1898: Poulsen and the Beginnings of Sound
Although cinema was less than three years old in 1898, a giant leap was taken in the technology that would, nearly thirty years later, result in talking pictures when, on the 1st December, Arnold Poulsen filed a patent for his invention, the Telegraphone. An excerpt of Poulsen's description of his invention from the patent application reads as follows:
"The invention based upon the fact that when a body made of magnetisable material is touched at different points and at different times by an electromagnet included in a telephonic or telegraphic circuit, its parts are subjected to such varied magnetic influences that conversely by the action of the magnetisable body upon the electromagnet the same sounds or signals are subsequently given out in the telephone or recording instrument as those which previously caused the magnetic action upon the magnetisable body."
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Essentially, Poulsen's invention was the first to record and reproduce magnetic sounds (on a steel band), and was intended to answer unattended telephones and play back recorded messages. Although cinema was undoubtedly the furthest thing from Poulsen's mind, the eventual influence of its subsequent evolution on the seventh art would be immense. [ADD]
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