In 1896, two phonograph engineers were arrested for the first crime not patent related within the recording business. The more famous of the two, Russell Hunting, had made a name for himself inside and out of recording labs. To most, he was a second rate performer in somewhat scandalous burlesque shows, but to some he was the voice of nearly every phonograph.
The lesser known of the two was Charles Carson, one of the most brilliant engineers of the phonograph in the 1890s. While Hunting stole the spotlight upon their arrest, Carson proved to have an interesting life before and after the months they spent in jail. Carson was known to the phonograph world as one of the more unusual figures who manned the machines every day. He came from humble beginnings, but ended up traveling the world more than many people of the time would do in their entire lives.
Charlie, as he was called, Carson was born in 1870, to a rather normal Ohio family. Somehow he ended up getting into the exclusive clique that was the phonograph business at the mere age of 21, proving himself well with maintaining and repairing the machines that were still in a mostly experimental state. In 1892, while helping to invent a sufficient record copying device, he met the newly minted recording start Russell Hunting. Hunting at the time was a B list actor and performer who also had a knack for the phonograph. Hunting and Car
