Berliner’s Gramophone
In 1887 German immigrant Emile Berliner patented the first in a series of inventions that would result in the first commercially successful disc record and a machine to play it: the gramophone. He also created a process to mass-produce multiple copies from a single master recording. Flat discs were longer playing, easier to store, and more durable than cylinders.
Listening at Home
Until the mass-production of cylinder and disc recordings, the music that most Americans experienced at home was live—hymns or popular tunes played or sung by family members. Records provided widespread access to the works of professional musicians and vocalists, as well as orators and comics. A byproduct of that access was new forms of celebrity culture.
Prototype gramophone Emile Berliner used for the first public demonstration of his machine in Philadelphia, 1888
Experimental celluloid disc recording
Experimental gramophone record made from celluloid, 1888. Emile Berliner eventually settled on a shellac compound for the discs.
Commercial versions of the gramophone were a hit with the public, who thrilled at the expanding repertoire of popular music and classical celebrity performers available on mass-produced discs.
