Phonograph

A machine that records and reproduces sound by converting vibrations into physical marks, then tracing those marks to recreate vibrations. Early phonographs used cylinders; later systems chiefly used discs.

Acoustic recording: Sound recording that captures vibrations mechanically, without electronic amplification. The earliest phonographs recorded sound directly through a diaphragm and stylus.
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville: A French inventor who created the phonautograph, an early device that traced sound vibrations but could not play them back. His 1857 device recorded visible traces decades before practical phonograph playback.
Gramophone: A sound-reproducing machine designed for disc records, especially the system developed by Emile Berliner. The gramophone’s flat discs and lateral grooves competed with cylinder phonographs.
Gramophone record: A flat disc with a modulated spiral groove that stores sound for gramophone playback. Disc records made phonograph-style playback durable, reproducible, and widely distributed.
Recorded music: Music captured in a reproducible medium rather than heard only during live performance. Phonographs made performances repeatable and portable beyond their original occasions.
Phonograph record: A disc bearing a spiral groove whose variations encode sound for mechanical playback. The disc became the phonograph’s dominant sound-storage medium.
Phonautograph: A device that traced sound waves onto a surface, originally without a means to reproduce them as sound. It established sound inscription as a mechanical possibility before the phonograph.
Magnetic tape recording: A recording method that stores sound as magnetic patterns on moving tape. Tape replaced physical grooves with a rewritable magnetic medium.
Victor Talking Machine Company: An American company that manufactured and marketed phonographs and records from 1901. Victor built a large business around home phonographs and recorded music.
Music industry: The network of businesses involved in creating, distributing, and monetizing music. Phonograph sales helped establish records as commodities and recording as a business.

Linked from 27 pages