What is Phonograph?
[[File:EdisonPhonograph.png|thumb|Edison Home Phonograph]] [[File:Lp12.jpg|thumb|A turntable-style record player]] The '''phonograph''' is a [[device]] for the mechanical recording and reproduction of [[sound]]. It was the most common device for playing recorded [[music]] from the [[1870s]] through the [[1980s]]. It was invented by [[Thomas Edison]], after other inventors had studied the idea. Early phonographs both recorded and played sound on [[cylinder]]s. In its later forms, it is also called a gramophone (as a [[trademark]] since [[1887]], as a generic name in the [[UK]] since [[1910]]) or, since the [[1940s]], a record player. ==Creation== Thomas Edison made his first phonograph with the mouth piece of the early [[telephone]] and some tinfoil. He thought he could talk into the mouth piece to make a disk vibrate, as the disk vibrated a needle would put grooves in the tinfoil. When Edison adjusted the machine to play and cranked the lever, he was surprised to hear his voice play back to him. He said his ideas rarely worked the first time. These cylinders could record sound, but due to their cylindrical shape, they could not be copied cheaply with a mold. The phonograph was soon replaced by the graphophone by [[Alexander Graham Bell]] in his Volta Laboratory. Later it was replaced with the disc phonograph, cassette tapes, compact discs, audio files and other devices. These later inventions made [[stereo]] sound. ==Gramophone== The gramophone, invented by Emile Berliner, plays sounds from a flat [[Gramophone record|disk record]]. The record is placed onto the '''turntable'''. The turntable spins the record while a lever with a small [[needle]] on the bottom lies between the little [[groove]]s in the disk. When the grooves make the needle vibrate, music is played. These machines do not record, but the disks could be copied quickly onto [[Ethylene|vinyl]] disks in a [[factory]] with a [[mold]], called a master. {{Tech-stub}} {{authority control}} [[Category:Audio technology| ]] [[Category:Music tech