Nowadays we have DVDs, CDs, MP3s, and of course the world wide web for all of our music needs. However, none of these would have been possible without the advent of the record player, one of the more important pieces of musical equipment in the history of the world. It was so pioneering that following its invention in 1877, it took almost 100 years for it to be replaced by new technologies. And still today, record players have a vintage musical feel that makes them quite popular with music aficionados worldwide. Nowadays, anytime one thinks of the record player, it is often the Technics or the Crosley Record Players that comes to mind. Though over a hundred years ago, the name which was of most importance was Thomas Edison.

Back in 1877, Edison developed what he referred to as the phonograph. His first records had been produced on tinfoil. These records had a spiral groove which went up and down the surface. A hand-cranked machine with a pin, or stylus, was utilized to read the grooves vibrating according to the texture. This was eventually called the hill-and-dale method. The vibrations would run up the needle, along a metal tubing, all the way to a big speaker. The speakers transformed the vibrations into much more audible sounds.

At the time Edison finished his creation, he was a lot more interested in its various scientific purposes rather than its musical potential. This left further advancements to other scientists.

Ten years later, Emile Berliner invented the disk record, and had it patented in 1896. Berliner’s design and style took its origin from Edison’s, but rather than using the hill-and-dale method, which had the grooves go up and down, his method, the varying lateral direction method, featured textures on the sides of the grooves. The varying later direction (VLD) caught on right away, and very soon Edison’s hill-and-dale method was a thing of the past.

It wasn’t long before mass production of disk records became possible when Berliner invented the matrix record. This master copy permitted duplicate records to be pressed forever. At this point, record players were still running off of the power of the hand crank. But when the late nineteenth century rolled around, so did electricity. Then soon after the electronic record player was announced. Unlike the hand-turned record players that can vary in speed according to the strength of the person, electrical record players supplied consistent speed. This meant that there was absolutely no variation in the tempo of the music that was played.

Ultimately, record players got so well liked that whole families would hang out around them to enjoy high quality entertainment. Early methods of the previous-song and next-song features of present day Mp3 players were introduced around this time. In order to select which track was to be played, people would place the stylus in one of the blank grooves located between the textured ones. And for many years, the record player dominated households all over the world.

With the seventies came cassette-tape decks and 8-tracks, and soon thereafter, record players seemed to be disappearing. However, when DJs became popular in clubs and discos, the turntable reclaimed its dominance.

No matter what technology throws at us, fans of music will always appreciate the record player!

You may enjoy this video on theCrosley Record Player, and this article about the history of recorded music.

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