Born: 18 February 1867 Died: 14 November 1945 Johnson, like
fellow recording pioneer Oberlin Smith, began his career as a
mechanical engineer. He was born in Dover, Delaware in 1867, but
did not become involved in the sound recording industry until
1896. By that time, Johnson was the owner of a small machine
shop in Camden, New Jersey. Emile Berliner asked Johnson to
design a spring-driven “motor” for his invention, the
gramophone. The gramophone was the first record player that
played music off of disks, not cylinders such as Edison’s
phonograph. Berliner needed a spring-driven motor because most
people still did not have electricity in their homes. Johnson
found Berliner’s gramophone lacking, and said it sounded like “a
partially educated parrot with a sore throat and a cold in the
head.” But Johnson was intrigued by the gramophone and quickly
became obsessed with it. He and Berliner became partners and
founded the Victor Company. Johnson was named president of the
company. With their combined resources and