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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
MARCH 9,
1918
FEATURING THE EDUCATIONAL SIDE OF THE VICTROLA
What Dealers in Various Sections of the Country Are Doing to Impress Upon the People in
Their Communities the Value of the Victor in the Schools—Original Ideas Set Forth
PHILADKI.PHIA, PA., March 4.—One of the im-
portant forces operating for the advancement
of music lies in the work being done by the
educational department of the Victor Talking
Machine Co. Within the last few years such
remarkable headway has been made in intro-
ducing talking machines into the schools, as a
means of educating young America, that today
the list of public and private institutions of
learning equipped with Victrolas includes sev-
eral thousand cities in the United States alone.
The possibilities of the Victrola along strictly
educational lines are, of course, being empha-
The Calder window features the school model
Victrola and shows several very interesting pic-
A Pennsylvania Display
tures of the Victrola being put to use for edu-
cational purposes.
THOS. A. EDISON AS A PROPHET
Article Written by Him Forty Years Ago Gave
Accurate Forecast Regarding the Wide Sphere
of Usefulness of the Phonograph
A Connecticut Window
sized in many constructive ways by the educa-
tional department of the Victor Co. But it is
not a single-handed crusade, for many of the
prominent Victor jobbers have within the last
year or two created educational departments of
their own, and the movement has also been
An Illinois Conception
taken up in earnest by leading Victor dealers.
The accompanying pictures show window de-
signs which have been presented by H. A. Wey-
mann & Sons, of Philadelphia, John W. Calder
& Co. of New Haven, Conn., and the Pontiac
Music Shop of Pontiac, 111.
The Weymann window utilizes the school
desks and a blackboard for "color." On the black-
board is written "The Victrola in the School
for Drills, Games, Marching, Dancing, Singing
Games, Physical Education, Stories and Games,
Band Accompaniments and Chorus Singing."
The mounted pictures shown in the window
illustrate the Victor being used for each of
these different purposes. The Pontiac window
display utilizes the blackboard and desks, but
in addition has introduced dummies to repre-
sent the children and the teacher, thereby add-
ing a human element that is decidedly attractive.
An article written by Thomas A. Edison for
the North American Review May-June. 1878, re-
cently came to light during a search among some
old documents in Mr. Edison's laboratory. In
this article Mr. Edison presented a number of
categorical questions to which he appended an-
swers, covering almost every phase of phono-
graphic development, showing what has been
successfully accomplished, as well as certain pos-
sibilities which subsequent developments prove
that Mr. Edison was a prophet in his own coun-
try.
This North American Review article, which
by the way, is being reprinted in full in the cur-
rent issue of the Amberol Mpnthly for its his-
torical importance, emphasizes Mr. Edison's
ideas regarding the future of the phonograph,
almost forty years ago. in which many of the
accomplishments of to-day were then set forth
as among the certainties.
In his questions and answers he covered sound
production in its various phases, record making
and multiplication as well as the preservation of
sounds. He adds further:
"Conceding that
the apparatus is practically perfected in so far
as the faithful reproduction of sound is con-
cerned, many of the following applications will
be made the moment the new form apparatus,
which the writer is now about completing, is
finished. These, then, might be classed as ac-
tualities; but they so closely trench upon other
application which will immediately follow that
it is impossible to separate them; hence they
are all enumerated under the head of probabil-
ities, and each specially considered. Among the
more important may be mentioned: Letter-
writing, and other forms of dictation, books, edu-
cation, reader, music, family record; and such
electrotype application as books, musical boxes,
toys, clocks, advertising and signaling apparatus,
speeches, etc., etc."
Mr. Edison treats these subjects in detail
and shows how phonographic books may be
used in the home; how the phonograph may be
used for educational purposes; as a musical en-
tertainer; as a family record; for toys of various
kinds, and points out the possibilities of the pho-
nographic clock that will tell the time of day,
how phonography may be used for advertising,
for transmitting the great speeches of prominent
men, posterity and lastly, and in quite another
direction, tells how the phonograph will perfect
the telephone and revolutionize present systems
of telegraph}'.
,
The article, which is very lengthy, certainly
demonstrated Mr. Edison's complete grasp of
the phonographic field four decades ago.
Increase Your
Income
Piano merchants, who
have not investigated
the talking machine
field, will find that the
subject is one of deep
interest to them and
they will also learn that
talking machines con-
stitute a line which can
be admirably blended
with piano selling.
The advance that has
been m a d e in this
special field has been
phenomenal and every
dealer w h o desires
s p e c i f ic information
concerning talking ma-
chines should receive
The Talking Machine
World regularly.
This is the only publi-
cation in A m e r i c a
devoted exclusively to
the interests of the talk-
ing machine, and each
issue contains a vast
fund of valuable in-
formation which the
talking machine job-
bers and dealers say is
worth ten times the cost
of the paper to them.
You can receive the
paper regularly at a cost
of $1.00 a year and we
know of no manner in
which $1.00 can be ex-
pended which will sup-
ply as much valuable
information.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
Publisher
373 Fourth Ave.
NEW YORK