Le Céleste cylinder phonograph

This large phonograph has an extraordinary glass horn producing its crystalline sound, and its sophisticated mechanism is housed in its beautifully made wooden case. It was shown at the Universal Exposition in 1900, where its maker received an award for the quality of his products. Admired by Aimé Laussedat, director of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers and chairman of the jury of the exhibition’s precision instruments section, the phonograph was donated to the Musée des Arts et Métiers, where it was displayed with its parts to highlight the construction procedures largely devised by Émile Labrely, engineer of the Manufacture Française d’Appareils de Précision. Labrely also invited Laussedat to visit the factory so that he could examine the fabrication techniques he was developing there.