Emile Berliner
1851 – 1929 German-American inventor
German-born American inventor of the flat-disc gramophone, the record format that beat out the cylinder.
- Religion
- Jewish
Emile Berliner emigrated from Germany to the United States and worked on telephone and sound technology. In 1887 he patented the gramophone, which recorded sound onto a flat disc rather than the wax cylinder used by Edison's phonograph. Discs were easier to mass-produce and store, and Berliner's format became the standard for the record industry that grew up around recorded music. His work helped turn recorded sound into a consumer product.
In the timeline
- 1887 Berliner patents the gramophone inventor