The Invention of the Record Player [Christopher Olvis]

Thomas Edison and his early phonograph

The history of recorded sound first began in the early Eighteenth Century. The creation of the phonautograph allowed sound waves to be recorded but not replayed. It wasn’t until 1877 that the Frenchman Charles Cros invented the phonograph, which would allow the recording and the replaying of sound (Morton 5). Months later, Thomas Edison was the first to patent and construct a similar design. The device “consisted of a hand-cranked, rotating cylinder, wrapped with a sheet of tinfoil” which would be indented by a stylus (Morton 9). The stylus was attached to a diaphragm and then to a funnel-shaped horn which would allow the recording and reproduction of the sound (Morton 10).

Edison cylinder phonograph [1899]

Replicated with a few improvements, the phonograph was exhibited in demonstrations for money (Morton 14). Meanwhile, an Alexander Graham Bell research laboratory copied the design and called it the graphophone but used wax instead of tin and allowed for longer recording (Morton 18). Improvements of the phonograph and graphophone had been made by the late 1880s but had failed to be marketed as a dictation device (Morton 22). Entertainment phonographs had always been a second option, and due to the success of coin-operated phonographs, a large amount of local music was recorded for new home and office versions of the phonograph (Morton 23-4). The new versions used a spring-wound, clockwork motor with an optional recording attachment. Competition of the two inventions drove the price down to affordable prices, the design of each player were now virtually the same, and the record player had “now been thoroughly transformed into a mass-market product” (Morton 26).

Victor V phonograph [1907]

Meanwhile, the disc-playing gramophone was introduced by Emile Berliner in 1895. Berliner’s company focused on designing cheaper record players with an easily mass produced record format and marketed for home music entertainment (Morton 36). By 1905, the recorder option had been eliminated and the designer, Eldridge Johnson produced a more elegant player that cost more money but was aimed at wealthy customers interested in classical and opera recordings (Morton 36). After experimenting with new materials and plastic compounds, the gramophone employed a 7-inch lacquer disc record, which was cheaper and more easily mass produced than the cylinder records (Morton 36). Johnson eventually entered the business aspect of the recording and record-production industry. He registered the Victor brand and adopted the corporate mascot image of a bull terrier gazing quizzically at the horn of a gramophone (Morton 38-9). By the 1920s and 30s, Victor became the first to introduce electrically powered and amplified phonographs. Throughout the Twentieth Century, the technology of record players and sound recording improved. The industry standardization of 78 records led to 33s and 45s, and the prosperity of post World War II led to a wide variety of aesthetic design choices for consumers.

Edison Idelia phonograph [1907]

The design of the early commercialized phonographs was bulky due to the newly invented technology, changeable cylinder recordings, and necessary funnel-shaped horn to produce the acoustic sound. Basic designs were generally similar from model to model, with a rectangular wooden base that hid functional mechanisms. However, the cylinder or disc record, needle arm, hand-crank, and horn were all exposed on the exterior. The geometry of these parts, especially the horn allowed for an exploitation of an Art Nouveau style of organic curvilinear shapes. High priced models employed the use of bold colors on the horn and ornamental wood decoration for the base.

RCA Victor Console [1931]

By the 1920s with the advent of broadcast radio, phonographs were now also available as a unit. The Art Deco and modern designs of the time were carried over to record players. With the electrically amplified sound, these cabinets were created to imitate furniture and to blend into household objects (Morton 7). In addition to the removal of the acoustic horn and providing new functional design, a single record player could also function as a portable, rectangular suitcase.

Victor wind-up portable [1930s]


Works Cited

1. Attwood, David. Sound Design. London: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, 2002.

2. Morton, David. Sound Recording: The Life Story of a Technology. London: Greenwood Technographies, 2004.