Contents from Wikipedia
Berliner
1887 - Emile Berliner Invents The Gramophone And Records On November 8 1887, Emile
Berliner, a German immigrant working in Washington D.C., patented a successful system
of sound recording. Berliner was the first inventor to stop recording on cylinders
and start recording on flat disks or records. The first records were made of glass,
later zinc, and eventually plastic. A spiral groove with sound information was etched
into the flat record. The record was rotated on the gramophone. The "arm" of the
gramophone held a needle that read the grooves in the record by vibration and transmitting
the information to the gramophone speaker.(See larger view of gramophone) Berliner's
disks (records) were the first sound recordings that could be mass-produced by creating
master recordings from which molds were made. From each mold, hundreds of disks
were pressed.
The Gramophone Company
Emile Berliner founded "The Gramophone Company" to mass manufacture his sound disks
(records) and the gramophone that played them. To help promote his gramophone system
Berliner did two things, he persuaded popular artists to record their music using
his system. Two famous artists who signed early on with Berliner's company were
Enrico Caruso and Dame Nellie Melba. The second smart marketing move Berliner made
came in 1908, when he used Francis Barraud's painting of 'His Master's Voice' as
his company's official trademark. Emile Berliner sold the licensing rights to his
patent for the gramophone and method of making records to the Victor Talking Machine
Company (RCA) who made the gramophone a successful product in the United States.
Berliner continued doing business in other countries. He founded the Berliner Gram-o-phone
Company in Montreal, Canada, the Deutsche Grammophon in Germany, and the U.K based
Gramophone Co., Ltd. Berliner's legacy also lives on in his trademark, a picture
of a dog listening to his master's voice being played from a gramophone. The dog's
name was Nipper.
Elridge Johnson
Emile Berliner worked on improving the playback machine with Elridge Johnson. Elridge
Johnson patented a spring motor for the Berliner gramophone. The motor made the
turntable revolve at an even speed and there was no more hand cranking of the gramophone.
The trademark His Master's Voice was passed on to Eldridge Johnson by Emile Berliner.
Johnson began to print it on his Victor record catalogs and then on the paper labels
of the disks. Soon, "His Master's Voice" became one of the best-known trademarks
in the world, still in use today.