Concept in Definition ABC

The history of record sound Recorded it began in the 19th century. In a first stage the phonoautograph appeared. Then came the phonograph, the gramophone, the tape recorder, the record player, the compact cassette and finally the digital recording. In less than 200 years, technological advances related to music and the sound have not stopped evolving.

The term gramophone comes from the Greek and is made up of two words: gramma which is equivalent to writing, and phono which means sound.

Parts of the apparatus and their principle of operation

The gramophones consisted of a turntable, an extension or arm that ends in the shape of a brass trumpet and a needle. With a built-in winding motor the platter was rotated at 80 rpm using a crank. At the front of the device was the loudspeaker. The principle by which this reproductive apparatus works is analog mechanical recording.

Historical evolution of music players

At the end of the 19th century, the phonographs invented by Edison began to be replaced by new devices, the gramophones. These artifacts allowed the use of rotating discs

blueprints, a feature that significantly improved the quality sound. Its inventor was Emil Berliner, a German expatriate to the United States. The gramophone was more advanced than the phonograph for two reasons: it was easier to mass-produce, and thousands of copies could be made from an original record. The needle of the device produced less wear on the record and thus increased the sound quality.

In 1900 its inventor registered the first Logo from his own company, a white dog peeking out on the gramophone trumpet ("the voice of his master's" is the advertising slogan used by one of the first commercial brands).

The popularity of these devices increased notably when the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso began to use them for the recording of his songs at the beginning of the 20th century. The radio was the media that allowed the diffusion of musical novelties in the first decades of the 20th century.

Within a few years, the new device became very popular in the homes of the wealthy classes and in the classrooms. dance. Just as the old phonograph fell into oblivion, gramophones began their decline when the first record players emerged around 1930. These, and vinyl records, for their part, began their decline in the 90s of the twentieth century.

Photo: Fotolia - kerdazz

Gramophone Topics