Notwithstanding the early use by the Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Straits, it was Germanophone anthropologists who were most active in using sound-recording technology in the early years of the discipline. However, their preferred technology was the Archiv-phonograph.
The problem with the system of recording onto wax cylinders was that it did not allow for easy reproduction. Therefore, in 1899, the Austrian Imperial Academy of Sciences commissioned a certain Fritz Hauser to develop a machine that would overcome this problem. He presented the result to the Academy in 1900 and it was considered sufficiently good to be used in the first field trials in 1901. The initial model was discovered to be very heavy and subsequently various lighter models were introduced.
Hauser’s machine was called the Archiv-Phonograph, and it engraved sounds onto a flat wax disc, known as a ‘phonogram’ rather than onto a cylinder. From this wax disc, a negative copy, known as a ‘phonotype’ would be made in copper. This was then coated with nickel and used to produce one or more further wax positives for storage. This archival disk was known as an ‘archivplatte’
This technology was not dissimilar to that which had been developed some years before by the Berliner Gramophone company, though there was an important technical difference in the precise means by which the sounds were recorded onto the discs. The Archiv-phonograph used the so-called ‘hill-and-dale’ vertical system of indentation that had been devised by Edison for use with his cylinders, whereas the Berliner phonographs worked on a horizontal principle.
The Archiv-Phonograph was used by Rudolf Pöch during his 1904-1906 expedition to New Guinea, as in the photograph above. He also used it during his 1908-09 expedition to southern Africa. It is clearly visible in his celebrated film, A Bushman Speaks Into a Phonograph, which is viewable here.
Texts : Schüller 1987, F. Lechleitner 1999, G. Lechleitner 1999