- Also called:
- record player
phonograph
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What is a phonograph?
A phonograph is an instrument that reproduces sound using a stylus that vibrates along a groove on a rotating disc. Sound waves are stored on the disc as a series of undulations. As the stylus traces these, its movements are converted back into sound.
Thomas Edison is generally credited with inventing the phonograph in 1877. His initial designs used a tinfoil-wrapped cylinder, with the sound recorded as indentations. Alexander Graham Bell and his colleagues improved upon Edison's design by using a removable cardboard cylinder coated with mineral wax and a more flexible stylus to improve sound quality. Emil Berliner further innovated the phonograph in 1887, replacing the cylinder with a flat disc. Berliner called his version of the phonograph a gramophone.
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Who invented the phonograph?
The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. It is an instrument that reproduces sounds through a stylus following a groove on a rotating disc.
Edison's initial phonograph utilized a vibrating stylus to create indentations on tinfoil wrapped around a rotating cylinder. In 1887, Emil Berliner improved upon Edison's design by tracing sound grooves in a spiral on a flat disc rather than a cylinder. Berliner also invented the Gramophone, which played these records.
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How does a phonograph work to play sound?
A phonograph reproduces sound using a stylus that traces a groove on a rotating disc. The stylus vibrates in response to undulations in the groove, which are replicas of sound waves. These vibrations are converted into electrical impulses by a pickup. An amplifier intensifies the electrical impulses, and a loudspeaker converts the amplified signals back into sound. The oscillations of the stylus determine the frequency and loudness of the sound. Thomas Edison is generally credited with inventing the phonograph in 1877.
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What parts make up a phonograph?
A phonograph reproduces sound using a stylus that follows a groove on a rotating disc. Modern phonograph systems share common components:
* A turntable rotates the record.
* A stylus tracks the record's groove. The stylus’ oscillation rate determines the sound's frequency, while the oscillation amplitude determines loudness.
* A pickup converts the stylus's mechanical movements into electrical impulses.
* An amplifier intensifies the electrical impulses.
* A loudspeaker converts the amplified signals back into sound.4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did the phonograph change how people listened to music?
The phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, revolutionized how people accessed and enjoyed music. Before its advent, musical performances were only accessible if someone was present to play them. The phonograph made music accessible to a wider audience, allowing for the mass production and distribution of recordings. This innovation marked the beginning of portable music, as people could listen to their favorite songs at their convenience. The rise of the phonograph also coincided with new music styles, like ragtime, contributing to unprecedented dance crazes and increased sales of phonographs.
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What newer devices replaced the phonograph and how did they improve on it?
The phonograph was largely replaced by recorded cassettes and compact discs (CDs) in the 1980s.
CDs improved upon phonographs in several ways:
- Dynamic Range: CDs possess a greater dynamic range, ideally over 90 decibels, compared to the limited range of phonographs.
- Frequency Response: CDs have a linear frequency response from below 20 Hz to over 20,000 Hz, exceeding the range of human hearing, unlike phonographs.
- Digital Technology: CDs use digital technology to mitigate technical issues inherent in phonograph recordings.
- Sampling Rate: CDs sample sound waves at 44.1 kHz, enabling accurate reproduction of both large and small wave intensities.
- Stability: CDs exactly reproduce the recording's time scale, eliminating frequency instabilities found in other recording types.
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phonograph, instrument for reproducing sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus, or needle, following a groove on a rotating disc. A phonograph disc, or record, stores a replica of sound waves as a series of undulations in a sinuous groove inscribed on its rotating surface by the stylus. When the record is played back, another stylus responds to the undulations, and its motions are then reconverted into sound.
Though experimental mechanisms of this type appeared as early as 1857, the invention of the phonograph is generally credited to the American inventor Thomas Edison (1877). His first recordings were indentations embossed into a sheet of tinfoil by a vibrating stylus; the tinfoil was wrapped around a cylinder that was rotated as the sounds were being recorded. Improvements in Edison’s process followed, notable among which were Emil Berliner’s innovation in 1887 of tracing sound grooves in a spiral on a flat disc rather than in a helix on a cylinder. A negative was made from the flat master disc, and the negative then used as a mold for making many copies that reproduced the original master disc. These “records,” as they came to be known, could be played on a reproducing machine Berliner named a Gramophone.
Improved methods of molding disc records followed in the early 20th century, and by 1915 the 78-RPM (revolutions-per-minute) record, with a playing time of about 4 1/2 minutes per side, had become standard. In the early 1920s electric loudspeakers were adopted to amplify the volume of reproduced sound. In 1948 Columbia Records introduced the long-playing (LP) record, which, with a rotational speed of 331/3 RPM and the use of very fine grooves, could yield up to 30 minutes of playing time per side. Shortly afterward RCA Corporation introduced the 45-RPM disc, which could play for up to 8 minutes per side. These LP’s and “singles” supplanted 78s in the 1950s, and stereophonic (or “stereo”) systems, with two separate channels of information in a single groove, became a commercial reality in 1958. Stereo phonographs capable of the undistorted reproduction of sound became one component of what is known as a high-fidelity sound system.
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All modern phonograph systems had certain components in common: a turntable that rotated the record; a stylus that tracked a groove in the record; a pickup that converted the mechanical movements of the stylus into electrical impulses; an amplifier that intensified these electrical impulses; and a loudspeaker that converted the amplified signals back into sound.
Phonographs and records were the chief means of reproducing recorded sound at home until the 1980s, when they were largely supplanted by recorded cassettes and compact discs. See also sound recording.