On May 4, 1886, Chichester A. Bell and Sumner Tainter obtained patents Nos. 341,214 and 341,288, which covered a great improvement in the record of the phonograph. This invention substituted for the tinfoil sheet a surface of wax, which was finally fashioned into a cylinder, and instead of merely indenting the record on tinfoil the stylus cut a distinct groove or kerf in the wax cylinder as it revolved, dislodging therefrom a minute filament or shaving and forming a record which was not only far more positive in its translating effect and more easily transported and stored, but was also less perishable, and besides it could be easily effaced without loss of the cylinder by simply smoothing off the surface of the cylinder again when it was desired to make a new record. This invention quickly grew into practical use, and is known as the “Graphophone.” [Illustration: FIG. 191.--THE GRAPHOPHONE, RECORDING AND REPRODUCING DEVICES.] In Fig. 191 is shown on the left a cross section of the diaphragm, recording stylus, and wax cylinder, of the graphophone, the stylus plowing a tiny groove in the wax cylinder in the act of recording the speech, and on the right is shown the reproducing stylus traversing the record groove in the wax cylinder, and the diaphragm chamber with which the ear tubes are connected. The grooves in the wax, although giving forth mechanical movement that is translated into sound, are very minute, being only 6/10,000 of an inch deep. When the possibilities of the graphophone became known, capital was quickly supplied for its commercial exploitation, and the Columbia Phonograph Company was organized. At the present time, owing to the great increase in the business, the control of the graphophone business is vested in two branches, the Columbia Phonograph Company, which has charge of the selling, and which has offices throughout all the principal cities of this country and some of the larger ones of Europe, and the American Graphophone Company, which attends to the manufacturing branch, and whose factory is located at Bridgeport, Conn., where, it is said, that in 1898 the production of the factory reached the point of one graphophone for every minute of the day, making a total daily output of 600 machines. Although the Bell and Tainter patents of 1886 represent the basic principles of the graphophone, its development and perfection have been contributed to in many subsequent improvements by Messrs. Bell, Tainter, McDonald, and others. The more important of these are covered by patents No. 375,579, Dec. 27, 1887; No. 380,535, April 3, 1888; No. 527,755, Oct. 16, 1894, and No. 579,595, March 30, 1897.