In the course of some experiments Mr. Edison was making with the telephone, a stylus attached to the diaphragm pierced his finger at the moment when the diaphragm began to vibrate under the influence of the voice, and the prick was enough to draw blood. It then occurred to him that if the vibrations of the diaphragm enabled the stylus to pierce the skin, they might produce on a flexible surface such distinct outlines as to represent all the undulations produced by the voice, and even that the same outlines might mechanically reproduce the vibrations which had caused them, by reacting on a plate capable of vibrating in the same way as that which he had already used for the reproduction of the Morse signals. From that moment the phonograph was discovered, since there was only a step between the idea and its realisation, and in less than two days the instrument was made and tried. This is an ingenious story, yet we would rather believe that the discovery was made in a more serious spirit. In fact, such an inventor as Mr. Edison, who had discovered the electro-motograph, and had applied it to the telephone, was already on the way to discover the phonograph, and we think too well of his powers to attach much credit to this American romance. Besides, Mr. Edison was well acquainted with Mr. Scott’s phonautograph. Mr. Edison’s phonograph was only patented in January 1877. Consequently, when we look at the principle of the invention, M. Cros undoubtedly may claim priority; but it is a question whether the system described in his sealed paper, and published in the _Semaine du Clergé_, October 8, 1877, would have been capable of reproducing speech. Our doubt seems justified by the unsuccessful attempts of the Abbé Leblanc to carry out M. Cros’ idea. When we have to do with such undulating and complex vibrations as those involved in the reproduction of articulate words, it is necessary that the stereotyping should in some sense be effected by the words themselves, and their artificial reproduction will necessarily fail to mark the slight differences which distinguish the delicate combinations of speech. Besides, the movements performed by a point confined to a groove that follows a sinusoidal curve cannot be effected with all the freedom necessary for the development of sounds, and the friction exerted on the two edges of the groove will often be of a nature to stifle them. A distinguished member of the Société de Physique, when I exhibited the phonograph to that society, justly said that Mr. Edison’s whole invention consisted in the thin metallic sheet on which the vibrations are inscribed; this sheet permits the movements of the vibrating plate to be directly stereotyped, and thereby the problem is solved. It was necessary to find such an expedient, and it was done by Mr. Edison, who is therefore the inventor of the phonograph.