Emile Berliner (1851–1929) was a German-born American inventor whose work helped establish the modern recorded-sound industry. Born in Hanover, Germany, on May 20, 1851, Berliner immigrated to the United States in 1870. He initially worked in Washington, D.C., and New York before becoming involved in telephone research. In 1876 he developed a loose-contact telephone transmitter, an important early microphone design, and later sold the patent rights to the American Bell Telephone Company.
Berliner’s most important contribution came with his development of the gramophone and flat disc record. Beginning in 1886, he worked on a system that recorded sound as lateral grooves on a flat disc rather than on a cylinder. He received his first U.S. gramophone patent on November 8, 1887. The disc format could be duplicated more easily and economically than cylinder recordings, making it particularly well suited to commercial mass production.
Berliner established companies to manufacture and market his invention, including the United States Gramophone Company and the Berliner Gramophone Company. His technology eventually passed to Eldridge R. Johnson, whose company became the Victor Talking Machine Company, making Berliner an important figure in the development of the modern record industry.
Beyond sound recording, Berliner worked on acoustics, aviation, public health, and other inventions. He died in Washington, D.C., on August 3, 1929.
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