A very important feature in record-making, from a commercial standpoint, is in means for cheaply duplicating records. If every record cylinder had to be made by the separate act of a performer such records would be very expensive. An original record is first made by some celebrated musician or speaker, and this record is afterwards multiplied and reproduced in large numbers. For this purpose an original record by suitable mechanism is made to take the place of the speaker or singer, and so multiplies and reproduces the original record. The duplicating of records was contemplated by Edison from the first, as seen in his British patent, 1,644 of 1878, and later appliances for accomplishing such results are covered under Tainter’s patent, No. 341,287, Bettini’s, No. 488,381, and McDonald’s, No. 559,806. The diaphragms used in the recorders and reproducers are made of French rolled plate glass, thinner than a sheet of ordinary writing paper. The recording stylus is shaped like a little gouge to cut the little grooves in the wax, while the corresponding stylus of the reproducer has a ball-shaped end to travel in the groove. Both the recording stylus and reproducing ball are made of sapphire, chosen on account of its hardness, to resist the great frictional wear to which they are subjected. When a record is to be effaced from a cylinder, it is turned off smooth on a sort of lathe, and the cutting tool or knife for this purpose is also made of sapphire. The latest, loudest, and most impressive form of the talking machine is the “Graphophone Grand.” This has a horn attachment exceeding the big horn of a brass band in size, and the wax cylinder is about four inches in diameter. Its reproductions in music and speech are so full and strong as to be clearly heard at the most remote part of a large hall, and its versatile voice lends effective rendition to all sorts and kinds of sounds, from the inspiring chords of “A Choir Invisible” to the grandiloquent and facetious rattle of a noisy and hustling auctioneer. [Illustration: FIG. 192.--MODERN PHONOGRAPH.] It is not to be understood, however, that the graphophone is the only speaking machine on the market, for about 250 patents have been granted on phonographs and graphophones. The National Phonograph Company, under many later patents granted to Mr. Edison, manufactures and sells the phonograph shown in Fig. 192, which is a very ingenious and effective instrument. This modern form of phonograph is actuated either by electricity or spring power, is regulated by a speed governor, and bifurcated ear tubes connect with the diaphragm case, which tubes are placed in the ears when the instrument is operated. [Illustration: FIG. 193.--THE GRAMOPHONE RECORDER.]