over the difficult-to-duplicate wax cylinders of the Edison Phonograph. Examining the Berliner discs under a microscope, Johnson recognized that the acid etched process was creating random jagged grooves in the records, which were excessively scratchy and noisy when played. Johnson began experimenting with melted down Edison wax cylinders in an attempt to bring the sonic benefits of the Bell-Tainter method of engraving in wax to lateral-cut Gramophone discs. Johnson was successful in developing a satisfactory process of recording, but mass production still proved challenging. Whereas Berliner's zinc master easily electroplated to facilitate the master stampers, Johnson's wax discs were not. Johnson contacted C. K. Haddon, an associate from his J. Lodge and Son days who had access to electroplating machinery. Johnson provided Haddon with a fragment of a Gramophone disc, ostensibly to obscure the direction of his research. After two years and an investment of $50,000, Johnson was prepared to enter the Gramophone record market in 1900; he incorporated as the Consolidated Talking Machine Company of Philadelphia, and began selling records as well as a variety of Gramophone models under this name. This brought Johnson directly into the bitter legal dispute between Berliner and their former partner, Frank Seaman; Seaman then sued Johnson in early 1901, and requested an injunction prohibiting Johnson from manufacturing and selling Gramophones. The injunction was denied, but Johnson was temporarily prevented from using variations on the word ‘Gramophone’. Though this decision was soon reversed, Johnson chose not to refer to his talking machine as a 'Gramophone'. On March 12, less than two weeks after the court decision, Johnson registered the ‘Victor’ trademark. Victor Talking Machine Company Legacy Eldridge Johnson despised the pressures of big business and had never intended on becoming a business tycoon. In 1924, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was unable to make any decisions regarding Victor's affairs; The Victor Company nearly went bankrupt in 1925, and Johnson began to seriously consider retiring from the phonograph business. After years of turning down prospective buyers, Johnson sold the Victor Talking Machine Company for $40 million to two banking firms in 1926, which, in turn, sold Victor to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1929. Johnson resigned as president of the company and largely withdrew from the public eye. He donated large sums of his vast wealth to various charities and established the Johnson Foundation for Research in Medical Physics at the University