The tin boxes remained in a Smithsonian vault until 1937, when they were opened in the presence of Bell relatives.

For playback, the machine aimed a fine jet of air at the record’s grooves through a rubber hose (not present) attached to a fitting behind the cylinder. In fact, the device contained in the box was an Edison phonograph, altered with widened grooves and a cylinder coated in wax onto which a vibrating stylus could inscribe a message. The machine was a clear effort to improve on Thomas Edison’s tinfoil phonograph. Stowed in the third box was a copper recording and a new kind of sound recording and playback device, the graphophone. The first two boxes contained documentation for the photophone, a device to carry sound wirelessly on a light beam. The confidential materials within these boxes could serve as evidence in case of a patent fight. In addition to indicating Alexander Graham Bell’s high regard for the Smithsonian’s role in fostering science and technology, the deposit reflected his growing sensitivity to numerous challenges to his telephone patent. On three occasions-FebruApand October 30, 1881-the Volta Laboratory Associates delivered sealed tin boxes to the Smithsonian for safekeeping.

Elsie may grosvenor