1895 gramophone by German American Emile Berliner, with Aldo Mancusi, at Enrico Caruso Museum 

This is a Berliner Model A 'Improved Gramophone', which was introduced in 1898: in 1895, Berliner only had the hand-driven version. The first spring motor Gramophones were the 'lever wind' models of 1896/7. In Berliner's recording technique, he used a wax-coated zinc disc, with the wax kept moist by alcohol. The disc was then placed in an acid bath, to etch the grooves into the zinc: later, the zinc master would be electroplated to create the final stampers. The earliest discs were stamped of celluloid; slightly later, he tried hard rubber, before settling on a shellac composition. Eldridge Johnson replaced the etching method with direct engraving on a wax blank, which made for a quieter surface. Edison actually made a 'disc' Phonograph as early as 1879: it used a flat sheet of tinfoil, mounted on a turntable, and used a simple spring motor. The original machine has not survived, but we have Edison's sketches, and an engraving of the finished machine. He returned to the disc format in 1912, with the 'Diamond Discs', some of which are among the best-sounding acoustic records made. Victor didn't exactly 'put Edison out of business': the last Edison records were made in late 1929, about the same time Johnson sold Victor to RCA.

What is even more cool is that some of the humans that were around when cylinder recordings were useful lived to see the inventions of the 2000s and half of the 2010s. Octogenarians, Nonagenarians, Centenarians, and Supercentenarians can teach you a lot about the past and how technology has advanced.

Lost Format: The Cylinder CD.

I love this gentleman’s Brooklyn accent, it reminds me of home. I’ve actually wanted to visit the Caruso museum very badly ever since I first learned of it, probably close to 20 years ago. But I haven’t lived in Brooklyn for many years. Hopefully one day it will be possible.

Trademark model. Very rare. Cool. First time I've ever heard one.

The big difference between cylinder and disc was that, while each cylinder had to be made individually, usually by having several machines present at each session, the discs could be mass-produced by making a negative (actually a series of negative-positive-negative, etc.) from the original. Also, Edison's cylinders were incised vertically, while Berliner's discs were incised laterally. While Edison eventually gave up on cylinders, his discs continued to use vertical incision, up until Berliner died in 1929.

The reason Berliner could patent his apparatus was that he used lateral modulation instead of vertical modulation, as used by Edison. Berliner did not use shellac discs until 1895. At first he recorded on glass discs covered with lamp-black. The stylus traced a modulated track and removed the lamp-black underneath the style. The acid was used after the recording was finished, to etch a trace where the stylus had removed the lamp-black. He soon switched to recording on zinc foil discs, covered with a vax film. After a while he managed to produce metallic negatived, which he used to stamp hard rubber discs. It was when it was discovered that the rubber discs developed flat parties, caused the playback stylus to skip across the record, that the started using shellac-based discs.

Beautiful piece of history

Is the singer Ferruccio Giannini? This tenor is often described as the first opera-singer to appear on disc records, beginning I think in 1896 (six years before Caruso's first records). Most early records, both cylinders and discs, were comic sketches, humorous or sentimental songs, instrumental solos (cornet, clarinet or banjo) or military bands.

❤️😎 ❤️ love this you have cherish this respect the OG listen to the stories they don't make'em like that anymore got to get whatever knowledge and from elders

Welcome to Peabody's Improbable Phonograph History!

I wonder how will sound that record using a modern turntable with the appropiate stylus.

What rpm did these 1895 records have? 78 rpm already, or something else? Or was it not "standardised"?

I agree the machine wasn't made until at least 1898 perhaps. Berliner was eventually sued and put out of business in1900. At least in America. He then went to Canada and started the Berliner gramophone Co. Of Montreal Canada. For how long I don't know. Also they could have played a better record. That on sounds terrible. It's not the machine.

was at 1877 the sound worst¿?