Thomas Edison's talking dolls in 1890 became nightmare fuel due to creepy voice recordings. Its eerie sound earned it the name ‘little monsters’

Think of winding up a doll expecting to hear a nice nursery rhyme, but you are instead greeted by a warped squeaky voice, which sounds nothing like you would expect. That was the experience behind one of Thomas Edison’s most unusual inventions. Back in 1890, the celebrated inventor introduced talking dolls that could recite nursery rhymes using recorded human voices. The technology was remarkable for its time, but the result was far from the charming toy he would have wanted.

The dolls struggled in the market with their unnatural voices and unreliable mechanisms making them difficult to enjoy. Edison eventually referred to them as his “little monsters”, a fitting description for an invention that combined an exciting technological breakthrough with an unsettling listening experience.

How Thomas Edison brought dolls to life

Edison’s idea of this doll was built on his work on the phonograph, which he developed in 1877. The device could record and reproduce sound, and he soon began exploring how it might be used in toys.


According to Smithsonian Magazine, early recordings made on tin foil were not suitable for commercial dolls. The project took time to develop but improvements in wax-cylinder recording eventually allowed Edison and his team to move forward with it.

The dolls released in the market in 1890 and was about two feet tall, featuring porcelain heads, jointed wooden limbs and metal torsos. Inside each body was a miniature phonograph. By turning a hand crank on the doll’s back, a person could play a short recording of a nursery rhyme.

The selections included familiar favourites such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, “Jack and Jill” and “Hickory Dickory Dock”. Producing the recordings required a team of workers, too. Smithsonian Magazine reported that as many as 18 young women recorded nursery rhymes in separate factory cubicles, with each doll carrying a recording.

Why the recordings sounded so strange

The idea of hearing a recorded human voice from a toy was new, but the technology had serious limitations at the time. The tiny phonographs could not reproduce voices clearly, leaving the rhymes distorted and unnatural in their sound.

PBS, citing the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, reported that even a brand-new, unplayed cylinder produced distorted sound. The recordings could become harder to understand as the wax wore down, while improper winding could further affect playback in a bad manner.

The sound was only part of the problem. The crank could be misplaced, the stylus could slip out of position and the fragile wax cylinders could break easily. Some dolls stopped speaking while others grew progressively quieter as time passed.

The complaints soon reached Edison’s company. Smithsonian Magazine reported that a Boston toy retailer wrote in April 1890 about dolls being returned because their mechanisms were loose or their voices had become too faint to understand.

A promising invention that failed to sell

The dolls also came with a high price tag. Smithsonian Magazine reported that an undressed version cost $10, while a dressed doll cost $20. For customers paying those amounts, the poor sound quality and unreliable mechanism offered little reassurance.

Within weeks of the launch, Edison withdrew the dolls from the market in May 1890. Estimates of sales vary, but Smithsonian Magazine reported that fewer than 500 may have been sold, despite thousands being produced or prepared for shipment.

Edison considered improving the design, but the business struggled financially. By autumn, the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Company was more than $50,000 in debt and could not secure a loan to produce an improved version.