Phonograph





The Phonograph or Gramophone were the most common devices for playing
recorded sound from the 1870s through the 1980s. Usage of these terms is
somewhat different in British English and American English; see usage note
below. In more modern usage, this device is often called the turntable or
record player. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the alternative term
Talking machine was sometimes used.

The Phonograph was the first device for recording and replaying sound.

The term Phonograph means "writing sound", a term coined from Greek roots.
Similar related terms gramophone and graphophone mean the same thing.
Arguably, any device used to record sound or reproduce recorded sound could
be called a type of "phonograph", but in common practice it is usually only
used to refer to certain historic technologies of sound recording.

History

Thomas Alva Edison invented the first phonograph, a device for recording and
replaying sound, in 1877 and patented it on February 19, 1878. Edison's
early phonographs recorded on a cylinder using up-down (vertical) motion of
the stylus. Edison's early patents show that he also considered that sound
could also be recorded as a spiral on a disc, but Edison concentrated his
efforts on cylinders, since the groove on the outside of a rotating cylinder
provides a constant velocity to the stylus in the groove, which Edison
considered more "scientifically correct". See also: phonograph cylinder

Emile Berliner invented what he called the Gramophone, another device for
recording and replaying sound, and patented it in 1888. It recorded on a
disk using side-to-side (lateral) motion of the stylus.

British and American language usage differences

In British English "gramophone" came to refer to any sound reproducing
machine using disc records, as disc records were popularized in the UK by
the Gramophone Company. The term "phonograph" is usually restricted to
devices playing cylinder records

In American English, "phonograph" was the most common generic term for any
early sound reproducing machine. Berliner's Gramophone was considered a type
of phonograph. "Gramophone" was a brand name, and as such in the same
category as "Victrola," "Zon-o-phone," and "Graphonola" refering to specific
brands of sound reproducing machines. The brand "Gramophone" was not used in
the USA after 1901, and the word fell out of use there. In contemporary
American usage "phonograph" most usually refers to disc record machines or
turntables, the most common type of analogue recording from the 1910s on.

Discs verses cylinders on the marketplace

Disc recording is inherently neither better nor worse than cylinder
recording in potential audio fidelity. However Berliner's disc technique had
commercial advantages over the Edison cylinder system:

   * Since Edison only patented recording sound vertically in a groove,
     Berliner did not need to pay royalties when using a lateral groove.
   * The disc was much easier to mass produce by molding and stamping, and
     easier to store.

After years of experimentation, in 1895 Berliner decided he had perfected
his "gramophone" system to begin commercial production of his disc records
and "gramophones" or "talking-machines" to play them on. These were the
first analogue disc records to be offered to the public. From mid the 1890s
through the 1910s both phonograph cylinder and disc recordings and machines
to play them on were widely mass marketed and sold. The disc system
gradually became more popular due to its cheaper price and better marketing
by disc record companies.

The dominance of the disc phonograph

Berliner's lateral disc record was the ancestor of the 78rpm, 45rpm, Long
Play, and all other analogue disc records popular for use in sound recording
through the 20th century. For a more detailed discussion, see analogue disc record.

The "phonograph", or "gramophone", or "turntable" remained a common element
of home audio systems well after the introduction of other media such as
audio tape and even the early years of the compact disc. They were not
uncommon in home audio systems into the early 1990s.

The phonograph in the 21st century

Phonographs or disc record turntables continue to be manufactured and sold
into the 21st century, although in much smaller numbers.

Technics were largely responsible for the reinvention of turntables in the
late 1960's when they created first direct drive turntable, the SP-10.

One continuing use of the phonograph turntable is "Scratching" in hip hop or
rap music.