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1835-1919
EARLY INVENTIONS
1901
Italy
Guglielmo Marconi sends the first long distance wireless transmission, linking Corsica with the mainland. “First transatlantic wireless transmission, between Poldhu (Cornwall) and Newfoundland (Canada).” [Translation] (Wikipédia, “Guglielmo Marconi” entry)
To our knowledge, the term “phonography” only became widely used following the publication in 1987 of Evan Eisenberg’s The Recording Angel: Explorations in phonography. His goal in using this term was to define what he considered to be a new art form, that of making music on discs. Today the term is used in a variety of contexts, not just to refer to this “art form” — defined more or less convincingly by Eisenberg. It is also used to refer to the larger field of activities related directly or indirectly to the recording and reproduction of sound using either acoustic or electric means, and it is this definition which is used throughout this chronology. The real definition as encountered in the world of physics is a “graphic procedure by which the vibrations of a sounding body are represented and reproduced.” [Translation] (CNRTL, “Phonographie” entry)
1835
USA
Samuel Morse invents a code to represent alphabetical and numerical characters using a system of short and long sounds, or dots and dashes, and an electric telegraph capable of transmitting electric pulses across great distances. |
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1836
USA
Dr. C.G. Page accidentally invents the Electronic Tuning Fork. |
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1860
France
Léon Scott de Martinville invents the Phonautograph. 
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1866
USA
Mahlon Loomis describes a wireless transmission system (radio). |
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1876
USA
Alexander Graham Bell invents the Telephone, capable of transmitting the voice over distances using electricity.
Elisha Gray builds the Musical Telegraph, an important ancestor of modern electronic instruments. |
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1877
France
Charles Cros deposits a patent for the Paleophone, a machine which could record and reproduce the human voice, although the instrument was never completed.
USA
Thomas Edison invents the first phonograph. These devices used metal cylinders and could record and reproduce sound. |
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1888
Germany
Emile Berliner invents the first gramophone. |
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1889
France
Édouard Branly develops wireless telegraphy. |
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1896
Italy
Guglielmo Marconi makes the first wireless transmission (15 km).
Russia
Alexander Stepanovich Popov makes the first wireless transmission
(250 km).
Croatia
Nikola Tesla. |
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1900
Denmark
Valdemar Poulsen demonstrates his Telegraphone, the ancestor of the magnetic tape recorder. |
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1901
Italy
Guglielmo Marconi sends the first long distance wireless transmission, linking Corsica with the mainland. “First transatlantic wireless transmission, between Poldhu (Cornwall) and Newfoundland (Canada).” [Translation] (Wikipédia, “Guglielmo Marconi” entry) |
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1902
USA
Emile Berliner’s method of mass production of flat discs would quickly dominate the market for recorded music. It is around this time that the major recording companies such as HMV (His Master’s Voice), Columbia, Deutsche Grammophon, Gesellschaft Pathé, etc. are founded.
France
Opéra de Paris: stereo broadcast (!) via telephone lines. |
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1905-1914
USA / Germany
Several attempts at synchronization of sound and image, which would later result in the production of The Jazz Singer (USA, 1927), considered to be the first feature-length “talking picture” (a.k.a. “talkie”) in history. |
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1907
Canada
Réginald Fessenden: first real radio transmission, broadcast over a distance of 30 km, on Christmas Eve. |
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1919
USA
First radio transmission in this country, although attempts were first made in 1910, with an experimental re-broadcast of a live performance from the MET.
Canada
Around 1920, Montréal would follow with the station WXA (which later became CFCF). |
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INTRODUCTION 
