 Emile Berliner, inventor of the disc gramaphone and
improvements to the microphone
Image is in the public domain. |
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| Emile Berliner invented something that contributed to Bell's sucessful
invention of the voice telegraph or telephone. It was the microphone. When Bell first
demonstrated his telephone at an exposition many inventors began to refine and perfect the
idea. The carbon microphone he developed varied the contact pressure between two terminals
as a sound pressed against the microphone. This was much better than the crude microphones
used in the early telephones and Berliner sold the invention to Bell Telephone Company for
$50,000. Berliners other notable invention was the gramaphone using a flat disk instead
of the cylinder that Edison used. This disk enable mass duplication easily, and it quickly
replaced the cylinder as the best way to record audio at the time.
Berliner founded Deutsche Grammophon and Gramaphone Co. His trademark image became a
painting of his dog listening to "his master's voice" which is now the logo of
the music retail company HMV. |
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