On this Day Factola February 6, 1867 Birthday of Eldridge Reeves Johnson     Eldridge R. Johnson, ca. 1902 (1)   Born in Wilmington, Delaware on February 6, 1867 Eldrige Reeves Johnson was an American businessman and engineer who founded the Victor Talking Machine Company and built it into the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. - WIkipedia     Eldridge R. Johnson's Machine Shop, 108 N. Front Street, Camden, NJ, ca. 1890s (Courtesy Camden County Historical Archives) (2) In this shop the 29 year-old machinist invented the spring mechanism that went into a Berliner Talking Machine. From this relationship with Emile Berliner would emerge the Victor Talking Machine Company which was formed in 1901. For more details about Eldridge Johnson's role in the development of the talking machine industry, see the excellent website The Marvelous Talking Machine - Extraordinary Times.       Eldridge R. Johnson, ca. 1890s (3)       Listen to this 1901 Victor Model B Talking Machine                       February 6, 1867 - On this Day Factola .