Unmatched sound: A short history of the Gramophone (record player)

It all started in 1877 with Thomas Edison and and earlier version of what we call the record player (Gramophone) in which he called the “phonograph”.

Edison's first records were made of tinfoil. They had a spiral groove that went up and down the surface. This machine was hand-cranked equipped with a pin, or stylus that read the grooves of the disc, this caused vibrations depending on the texture, which was eventually known as the “hill-and-dale” method. The vibrations ran up the stylus along a metal tube all the way to a large speaker as seen in the picture above. These speakers would magnify the vibrations into louder, more audible sound.

10 years later, Emile Berliner invented the disc record, and patented it in 1896. The disc record was similar to Edison's design but instead of using “hill-and-dale,” his method was called the varying lateral direction, and had textures on the sides of the grooves. The VLD caught on fast and replaced Edison's version.

In 1890 the first lateral-cut disc was made in Germany.

In 1894 the United States Gramophone Company, in Washington DC started commercial sales.

Mass production of record discs became possible when Berliner invented the matrix record. This allowed duplicate records to be pressed indefinitely. Record players were still hand-cranked, but in the late 19th century electricity was used nationwide. With it came the electric-powered record player.

Unlike the hand-turned record players that can vary in speed according to the strength of the person, electric players offered consistent speed. This meant that there were no variations in the tempo of the music that was played.

In 1898, Berliner expands the business into London, and encounter competitors: Vitaphone and Zonophone.

In 1900 Berliner's business was shut down and patent rights were turned over to Eldridge Johnson who improved the quality of sound and merged companies with Berliner to form the Victor Talking machine company. This company was the leading phonograph company in the world at the time.

In 1948 the Columbia company had perfected the 12" Long Playing Vinyl disc. Spinning at 33 rpm the new format could play up to 25 minutes per side. However, Columbia's rival, RCA Victor then created the seven inch 45 rpm vinyl disc which held as much sound as the 12" 78 rpm discs they replaced, but were smaller and attractive.

The 45rpm record's years of greatest success began with the onset of rock and roll and the popularity of the 'Beatles'. This was the 'golden era' for the 45. During the following decades, buyers gradually began to purchase the 12" 'LP' as their affluence grew. By the end of the 1960s sales of the 45 had even begun to decline.

The 1970s brought the introduction of tape decks and 8-tracks, and soon, records and record players seemed to be phasing out. However DJ-ing became popular in clubs and discos and the record player remained strong, and even with the arrival of digital music formats many DJs continued to use record players to mix their musical masterpieces.

Today, the record player remains popular for music lovers and provides a nostalgic feeling and can still be purchased. Many music lovers will tell you that the sound quality is unmatched even by with today's technical advances. Although this media is pretty much obsolete as not many people possess these machines, and many opt for more portable, durable equipment in order to listen to music. This invention introduced a new concept of capturing music or sound to replay later, the Gramophone also introduced the first version of what we know know as previous and next play, as it allowed you to go back or skip to another song. I believe this invention was a great invention and good for society. It birth many concepts that we still see in more recent, technologically advanced world that we now see as skip, pause, playback.