If you read the book, you find out that the first edition actually appeared in the mid-1950's; only the last three chapters were added to an "updated edition" in time for the phonograph's centennial, in 1977. This is not a criticism; it is one of the book's strengths that the author was able to speak with associates of the engineers and inventors who were there to see the various improvements to the phonograph. Mr. Gelatt had something like a fifty-year head start over the researcher who would try to put this book together today, so he got a lot closer to the source. It is doubtful he could have known when the book was published that in five short years, the digital medium that eventually replaced the phonograph in most applications would make its appearance in 1982 in the form of a compact disc. Now it is 2002; the phonograph's 125th year, and the 20-year anniversary of CD in America. This book badly needs an update to include the digital revolution that occurred in the 25 years since it was published, but it is an excellent volume on the phonograph itself and related technologies that came and went along the way. It includes some technical explanantions of how the inventions worked, but on a level the layman can understand; it doesn't bog down in jargon. You need not be an engineer to enjoy and learn from it--you can be a student of technology, business, marketing, music, advertising, pop culture, or sociology and still find an angle on the phonograph from your perspective in this book. Well worth seeking out; in fact, I read it in the local library, but am now seeking a copy to keep for reference on my home bookshelf.
