Decca Portable Gramophone

In the evolution of mechanical music, the Gramophone followed the phonograph and the graphophone, each of which was invented in the United States. For the gramophone, the music was recorded on a flat disk, unlike the phonograph and graphophone. However in modern usage, the words "gramophone" and "phonograph" are both sometimes used to describe a gramophone or a gramophone record.

The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, and its major disadvantage was that, as well as the reproduction being poor, each cylinder lasted for only one play.

The graphophone was an improved version of the phonograph and went into commercial production in about 1885. Invented at the Volta Laboratory established by Alexander Graham Bell, it used wax cylinders which lasted for multiple plays. However each cylinder had to be recorded separately, preventing mass reproduction, and also resulting in differences in sound between each.

In 1887, Emile Berliner, a German born American inventor working in Washington patented a successful system of sound recording on a disk, where the sound information was etched into the surface. The disk or record was rotated on a turntable and a needle in the arm of the gramophone read the information in the grooves and transferred the sound to the speaker. The first records were made of glass, later zinc, and then plastic.

Berliner sold the licensing rights to his patent for the gramophone and method of making records to the Victor Talking Machine Company, founded by the engineer who assisted Berliner to develop the turntable and mechanism.

The use of the trademark of the dog listening the gramophone ("His Master's Voice") helped make it a successful product in the United States, and although the company was not called by that name, their records were marketed under the His Master's Voice" label.

Berliner founded the Berliner Gram-o-phone Company in Montreal, Canada, the Deutsche Grammophon in Germany, and the U.K based Gramophone Co., Ltd.