The Case:
A couple in Cincinnati acquired a peculiar phonograph at an antique auction. The machine was labeled “PsychoPhone” and included four, grooved wax cylinders.
Their research makes our contributors think Thomas Edison invented the PsychoPhone to record messages from the afterlife.
As early as the 1870s, Edison and other scientific minds explored psychic phenomena like mediums. They believed every living being was made of atoms that could “remember” past lives.
Did Edison make a machine to unlock the secrets of the dead? The wax cylinders could hold the answer.
History Detectives travels to the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park in New Jersey to find out.
Related Content
Video:
Technique:
Technique:
Technique:
Related Links
Explore
-
Also in Emerging Modern America: 1890-1930
Our Colored Heroes
Is this a WWI recruitment poster... or something else?
-
Also in Emerging Modern America: 1890-1930
Hollywood Sign
Is this a piece of the original Hollywood sign?
-
Also with Gwen Wright
U.S.S. Thresher
Do these documents disclose information about U.S. secret weapons in the Cold War?
-
Also with Gwen Wright
Special Agent Five
How did this tale of robbery and murder help FBI director J. Edgar Hoover consolidate his power?
-
Also in Season 7
Galleon Shipwreck
Is this a piece of treasure from a Spanish galleon washed up on an Oregon beach?
-
Also with Gwen Wright
Japanese House
How did a Japanese house come to be at the San Francisco World's Fair just months before WWII began?
Comments
This is a place for opinions, comments, questions and discussion; a place where viewers of History Detectives can express their points of view and connect with others who value history. We ask that posters be polite and respectful of all opinions. History Detectives reserves the right to delete comments that don’t conform to this conduct. We will not respond to every post, but will do our best to answer specific questions, or address an error.