History Of Recorded Sound Part 2: Phonograph versus Gramophone

Edison and his Phonograph:

In 1877 Edison produced his Phonograph and started to manufacture and sell them. He received awards and recognition for his achievement and created yet another industry, the music industry. His Phonograph is considered one of the most important inventions in audio history.

Edison's Phonograph

But about 10 to 15 years after Edison developed the Phonograph, a man from Germany named Emile Berliner would create a recording device that would change the game, he invented the Gramophone. The Gramophone was different from the Phonograph in two distinct ways, it had a spring in the turntable so that you didn't have to hand crank it the entire time you wanted to listen to music, and it also used a disc instead of a cylinder.

The Gramophone

You may be thinking that the Gramophone looks familiar, and that is because the yearly music awards, The Grammy Awards are designed to look like a Gramophone. This is because the Gramophone was the first device to use a disc playback method and it also started the audio engineering field of the music industry, more on that later though

Grammy Award

The Gramophone worked in a similar way to the Phonograph, a stylus would etch the waveforms of the sounds into the disc as the disc rotated along its axis. 

Berliner started his first Gramophone company, called The German Gramophone Company, in the late 1880's early 1890's. It didn't last for very long but, nobody is sure how long it was around. After the company failed, he started The American Gramophone Company, but it too failed. The American Gramophone Company was closed before it could sell any Gramophones or recordings. In 1895 Berliner teamed up with a machinist from Philidelphia named Eldridge Johnson. Johnson decided that a spring in the turntable to enable people to listen to their music without having to hand crank it would make the Gramophone more enjoyable. The company that Berliner founded with Johnson was called The United States Gramophone Company; The United States Gramophone Company would be one of the first major companies in the music industry. 

Originally the Gramophone discs were made of a hard rubber, but after Berliner started The US Gramophone Company, he decided to switch to a lacquer design. The lacquer disc would be in use for almost 40 years until the invention of the vinyl record. While The US Gramophone Company was growing and experiencing success, Berliner was dealing with other companies ripping off his design and rebranding his work as their own. Becoming frustrated with a number of law suits and legal action, Berliner decided to leave the Gramophone industry. He transferred all of his trademarks and patents to Eldridge Johnson; Johnson then rebranded The US Gramophone company as The Victor Gramophone Talking Machine Company. Victor would carry the success of The US Gramophone Company and be one of the biggest names in the music industry for years. It would also start a branch off company called HMV, His Master's Voice, and the dog sitting with the Gramophone would be featured on almost every record produced for years to come.

That's it for this chapter in the history of the music industry. Next week we will talk about Montreal's role in the beginning of the music industry!