American Historical Ephemera & Photography

One page, 8 3/8 x 11 in., creased at folds, light discoloration to verso. On "Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison" letterhead. 

In this letter to the editor of the Portland Journal, Edison seeks to correct what he believes is an incorrect statement made in an article in the 8 June issue of the periodical. He quotes the article: "It is not generally known perhaps, that an earlier inventor blazed the trail for Edison. He was Leon Scott, who in 1855 constructed the first talking machine. Equipped with a tinfoil record, incapable of being reproduced more than a few times, the instrument was played with for a year or so and presently forgotten." 

Edison then asserts: "You are quite mistaken in making the statement that Leon Scott made a phonograph. The device that he made was called a phonautograph. The name is fully descriptive of Scott's device, which provided for the tracing, on smoked glass, of the curves made by sound waves. This device of Scott's would not record or reproduce speech or other sounds. Consequently he never produced a tinfoil phonograph. The first tinfoil phonographs were made at my factory in 1877 and 1878, and distributed all over the world."

[With:] 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. printed bifolium pamphlet (heavy creasing with some separation to creases, significant chipping to edges, some holes and surface damage to covers). Promotional pamphlet for "The Edison Projecting Kinetoscope, Model 1903" features an engraving of a theater showing an "animated motion picture" of a moving train; information about the available views and features; positive reviews; and more. All inquiries are to be addressed to the Wade Entertainment Bureau, New York.