Following the announcement of Edison's invention of the phonograph in December 1877, many versions of the device were produced privately and in small commercial quantities. The present example bears no trace of a maker's name, and could well be the work of a manufacturer of scientific laboratory apparatus. The mouthpiece extension may have been intended to take the place of the existing mouthpiece, judging from the screw holes in its narrow end, and a mounting clearly existed formerly for another, larger extension of some kind. The original knob from the crank adjuster for the speaker is missing.