Collectors will be familiar with early wind-up gramophones which play, in general, 78 rpm discs. Some will have found the earlier phonographs that were developed, if not invented, by Thomas Edison and these play cylinder records. Originally cylinder machines were the first to be available to play recorded music and voices, but cylinders were difficult to make in quantity and Berliner in the US developed the flat disc and machines to play them. Discs were easier to make and once a “master” was made, the discs could be pressed in thousands whereas cylinders were almost made one by one. The quality and simplicity of use of disc recordings quickly made cylinder players redundant and with this in mind Edison developed his own version of a disc player. His machine kept the idea of a phonograph recorder with a diamond point and discs that were “Hill-and-Dale” or phonocut recorded. His discs were over 6mm thick to prevent warping!

This is an example of one of Edison’s players a “Disc Phonograph”. Several designs were made and this one is a cabinet machine that plays really well.