Based upon author’s review of the testimony given by Edison and his assistants during patent infringement lawsuits, The Deaf Inventor’s Sound Machine weaves a spellbinding tale of Edi-son’s relentless effort to overcome the technical challenges of how to record sound by a mechanical process and mass produce records durable enough to last for years even though made out of wax. But Edison solved those engineering challenges and, almost needlessly to say, the world has been happily tapping a foot to recorded tunes ever since.