Gramophone facts for kids

A gramophone is a machine that plays recorded sounds. When most people talk about a gramophone, they usually mean an old-fashioned record player. It was one of the first inventions that could record and play back sounds, changing how people listened to music and speeches forever!

The word "gramophone" can also mean a few other things:

• A gramophone record is a flat, round disc that stores sound. These are often called vinyl records today.
• Gramophone is a British magazine that writes about classical music.
• The Gramophone Company was a British company that made records and record players a long time ago, from 1897 to 1931.

What is a Gramophone?

A gramophone is a device that plays sounds that have been recorded. It works by using a needle that moves along a groove on a spinning disc or cylinder. This movement creates vibrations, which are then amplified (made louder) so you can hear them. Early gramophones were mechanical, meaning they didn't need electricity. You often had to wind them up by hand!

How it All Started: The Phonograph

The idea of recording sound might seem normal now, but it was a huge breakthrough in the past. Before the phonograph, if you wanted to hear a song or a speech again, someone had to perform it live.

Edison's Amazing Idea

The first machine that could record and play back sounds was called the phonograph. It was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. Edison was an American inventor famous for many things, including the light bulb. His first phonograph recorded sound onto a thin sheet of tin foil wrapped around a cylinder. When you spoke into a horn, the sound vibrations made a needle create grooves in the foil. To play it back, another needle followed these grooves, making the sound come out of the horn.

From Cylinders to Discs

Edison's first phonograph used cylinders. These were like thick tubes that spun around. Over time, other inventors improved on Edison's idea. One important improvement came from Emile Berliner, who invented the gramophone in 1887. Berliner's machine used flat discs instead of cylinders. These discs were easier to make and store, and they could be copied more easily. This is why flat records became much more popular than cylinders.

The Gramophone Record

The flat discs used by gramophones became known as gramophone records, or simply "records." Early records were often made from a material called shellac. They spun at different speeds, like 78 revolutions per minute (RPM). Later, records were made from vinyl and spun at slower speeds like 33⅓ RPM or 45 RPM. These are the records that many people still collect and listen to today. Each record has a spiral groove that holds the sound information.

Other Meanings of "Gramophone"

Besides the machine and the record, "Gramophone" also refers to a famous magazine and a historic company. Gramophone magazine started in 1923 and is still published today. It focuses on classical music, reviewing new recordings and writing about musicians. The Gramophone Company was one of the earliest and most important record companies in the world. It helped make recorded music popular and was known for its famous "His Master's Voice" logo, which showed a dog listening to a gramophone.

Images for kids

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  Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878

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  An Edison Standard Phonograph that uses wax cylinders

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  Early phonograph at Deaf Smith County Historical Museum in Hereford, Texas

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  Wood engraving published in The Illustrated Australian News, depicting a public demonstration of new technology at the Royal Society of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) on 8 August 1878.

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  Dictionary illustration of a phonautograph. This version uses a barrel made of plaster of Paris.

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  Patent drawing for Edison's phonograph, May 18, 1880

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  Phonograph cabinet built with Edison cement, 1912. The clockwork portion of the phonograph is concealed in the base beneath the statue; the amplifying horn is the shell behind the human figure.

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  A 'G' (Graham Bell) model Graphophone being played back by a typist after its cylinder had recorded dictation.

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  A later-model Columbia Graphophone of 1901

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  A Victor V phonograph, circa 1907

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  A 1930s portable wind-up gramophone from EMI (His Master's Voice)

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  Philco all-transistor model TPA-1 phonograph, developed and produced in 1955

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  Philco all-transistor model TPA-1 phonograph – Radio and Television News magazine, issue October 1955

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  A Technics SL-1200 turntable

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  Typical magnetic cartridge

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  Stylus for jukebox using shellac 78 rpm records, 1940s

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  A phonograph for record preservation at Fonoteca Nacional (National Sound Archive of Mexico)

See also

In Spanish: Fonógrafo para niños