Berliner Gramophone

Berliner Gramophone – its discs identified with an etched-in "E. Berliner's Gramophone" as the logo – was the first (and for nearly ten years the only) disc record label in the world. Its records were played on Emile Berliner's invention, the Gramophone, which competed with the wax-cylinder-playing phonographs that were more common in the 1890s.

Emile Berliner received US patents 372,786 and 382,790 on the Gramophone on November 8, 1887 and May 15, 1888 respectively. This was before the organization of the North American Phonograph Company, which first produced cylinder recordings for public use, and thus Berliner's flat disc record is roughly contemporary with the exploitation of the cylinder medium, though it took longer for Berliner to commence production of his discs in America. Although based in Washington D.C., Berliner's first joint venture was undertaken in Germany in 1889 with the manufacturer Kammer & Reinhardt, a maker of toys. The Kammer & Reinhardt machine utilized 5-inch hard rubber discs, and some machines and discs were exported to England. An 1890 recording of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, likely made by Berliner himself, is the oldest disc in the BBC Library and was once touted as the oldest in the world, though this has since been disproven. The Kammer & Reinhardt venture did not last very long, though just how long is unclear.

In the early 1890s, Berliner attempted to found his first American company, the American Gramophone Company, in New York City, but it fell apart before issuing a single machine or disc. Back in Washington, D.C., Berliner tried again under the name of the United States Gramophone Company and began to manufacture machines and 7-inch hard rubber discs in 1894. Some celluloid discs were also made. In 1895, hard rubber was replaced by a shellac compound, which in various formulations remained the standard disc record material until the first vinyl records – initially made only for radio use and other special applications – were introduced in the 1930s. Beginning in 1896, Berliner's gramophones were made by Philadelphia-based machinist Eldridge Johnson, who added a spring motor to drive the previously hand-rotated turntable. Berliner also opened an office in New York City, staffed by Frank Seaman and O.D. LaDow and organized as the National Gramophone Company.

Master recordings were made onto zinc plates, which were then electroplated and a negative-image "mother" made from them to stamp discs. A major reversal of Berliner's fortunes occurred when the mastering plant in Washington D.C. burned down on September 29, 1897, destroying a hundred unissued masters and all of his record manufacturing equipment. Within a few months, however, Berliner was up and rolling again, with some record production aspects moved to Philadelphia.

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