The Graphophone was the name and trademark of an improved version of the phonograph. It was invented at the Volta Laboratory established by Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C., United States.
A Columbia "Precision" Graphophone, a cylinder model sold in France, 1901
American Graphophone's 1888 wax cylinder graphophone. The machines were marketed for only a few years by American Graphophone and the North American Phonograph Company, but were superseded by Edison's 1888 'perfected phonograph' and its solid wax cylinders.
A 1912 advertisement for the Columbia Grafonola
A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of recorded sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a spiral groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a "record". To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it, very faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm which produced sound waves which were coupled to the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener's ears through stethoscope-type earphones.
Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878
Emile Berliner with the first gramophone he developed, in Hanover, Germany
An Edison Standard Phonograph that uses wax cylinders
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.
