ABSTRACT
Italian army officer, born in Novarra. He emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1880s, marrying an American socialite, Daisy Abbott of Stamford, Connecticut. Although he had no scientific training, he experimented in sound recording, attempting to improve on Thomas Edison’s cylinder reproducer. On 13 Aug 1889 he received three U.S. patents (#409,003; #409,004; #409,005-described in Koenigsberg 1990) for a “spider,” an attachment that connected a mica diaphragm to a stylus with a view to capturing more vibrations (detail photo in Marty 1979). The actual effect of the spider was to shift the response downward, strengthening the bass and weakening the treble; it improved the rendition of the female singing voice. Eventually (1902) Edison bought the patent from him. Bettini also patented reproducing devices for copying cylinders (U.S. #488,381, described in Koenigsberg 1990, which gives later patents also). He received a total of 14 U.S. patents in the sound recording field.
