gramophone

Synonym for record player, which is now the usual term. The gramophone was invented by Emile Berliner in 1887, an improvement on the instrument invented by Edison in 1877. Edison's phonograph used a wax cylinder: Berliner's innovation was the flat disk.

The term phonograph came to be used for gramophones in the United States, once the gramophone disk replaced the phonograph cylinder.

Berliner's Gramophone Company used the trademark of the dog Nipper listening to records. The company was former in 1893 and taken over by Victor in 1924.

Also, Gramophone is the leading magazine of the classical music industry, published monthly since 1923. From 1977 they have given the prestigious annual Gramophone Awards for recordings. (Not called the Grammies!)

Gram"o*phone (?), n. [Gr. &?; a thing drawn or written (fr. &?; write) + -phone, as in telephone.]

An instrument for recording, preserving, and reproducing sounds, the record being a tracing of a phonautograph etched in some solid material. Reproduction is accomplished by means of a system attached to an elastic diaphragm.

 

© Webster 1913