. devote large-scale engineering effort
to the dictating machine. The diamond disc line that was finally introduced in
1913 had several more years intense development the disc
record and reproducer before could match the
advertising claims its makers.2
twentieth century. The drawings for the new business
machine were completed the end 1914 and then the tools
2
were designed the Phonograph Works. (See Chapter Eleven) Its potential had
convinced TAE Inc.
The delays the disc project disrupted the schedule of
manufacturing the motion picture and dictating machine
products. The disc machines and records
suffered from the same "bugs" that had delayed the introduction
of other innovations phonograph technology.
The overflow work West Orange was caused the
problems with the first disc machines; this delayed their
commercial introduction and created bottleneck the Works. addition to
completely new products, there were also wide range of
engineering problems connected with manufacturing existing
products— especially storage batteries and motion
pictures— that occupied the laboratory work force. The pressure
of work West Orange blurred the lines between experimenting
and production engineering Edison drove his men complete
the many projects hand before the end 1914. Sales disc
machines were dependent the the growth library of
Edison disc records, for the diamond disc machines could only
play the Edison disc records
