Gramophones

In 1887, Emile Berliner, a German immigrant working in Washington D.C., patented a sound-recording system that could be mass produced. Prior to this date, sound had been recorded on cylinders and mass production was virtually impossible. Berliner developed a way to record sound on flat discs, or records, which could be easily mass produced. This device is known as the gramophone.

A gramophone consists of a turntable that holds the record, an arm with a needle that moves through the grooves of the record, and speakers that translate the sound vibrations transmitted from the needle. Berliner founded The Gramophone Company to mass produce his invention and began promoting it by persuading famous musical artists to record their music using his system. Berliner's partner, Elridge Johnson, patented a spring motor for the gramophone that made the turntable revolve at an even speed and eliminated the need for hand cranking.

Berliner eventually sold the licensing rights to his record-making system and the gramophone to the Victor Talking Machine Company, now known as RCA. Victor successfully marketed the gramophone in the United States. Berliner went on to found gramophone companies in Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Quick Facts

• Berliner used a 1908 painting by Francis Barraud "His Master's Voice," as the trademark for his company. The painting depicted a small dog named Nipper listening to a gramophone. The trademark rights were sold to Victor when Berliner sold rights to the gramophone. It is now one of the most famous trademarks in the world
• The first gramophones were horn gramophones, using the horn speaker similar to early phonographs. Around World War I, the portable gramophone was produced and was used widely from 1920 to 1955. Portable gramophones were called picnic gramophones because they could be taken on family outings
• In 2012, an unusual German triple-horn gramophone sold at auction in Cologne, Germany for $6,150