The phonograph, record player, or gramophone (from the Greek: γράμμα, gramma, "letter" and φωνή, phōnē, "voice"), is a device introduced in 1877 for the recording and reproduction of sound recordings.
The recordings played on such a device generally consist of wavy lines
that are either scratched, engraved, or grooved onto a rotating cylinder
or disc. As the cylinder or disc rotates, a stylus or needle traces the
wavy lines and vibrates to reproduce the recorded sound waves.
The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison.
While other inventors had produced devices that could record sounds,
Edison's phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded
sound. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet phonograph cylinder, and could both record and reproduce sounds. Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory
made several improvements in the 1880s, including the use of wax-coated
cardboard cylinders, and a cutting stylus that moved from side to side
in a "zig zag" pattern across the record. At the turn of the 20th
century, Emile Berliner initiated the transition from phonograph cylinders to gramophone records:
flat, double-sided discs with a spiral groove running from the
periphery to near the center. Other improvements were made throughout
the years, including modifications to the turntable and its drive system, the needle and stylus, and the sound and equalization systems.
The gramophone record was one of the dominant audio recording formats
throughout much of the 20th century. From the mid-1980s, phonograph use
declined sharply because of the rise of the Compact Disc and other digital recording
formats. While no longer mass market items, modest numbers of
phonographs and phonograph records continue to be produced in the second
decade of the 21st century.