The story of Emile Berliner
Visionary inventor considered founder of the Canadian recording industry
German-American engineer Emile Berliner (1851-1929) with the model of the first phonograph machine which he invented. Source.
The invention of sound recording and reproduction by Thomas Alva Edison in 1877 was met with great fascination. Edison fully realized his vision with the development of the phonograph, a device that recorded and reproduced sound by impressing the sound waves of his voice onto a tin-foil sheet wrapped around a rotating drum.
After modest success as an exhibition device, Edison abandoned his invention for a time to focus on what he believed was more pressing – the invention of a practical light bulb. It was during this period that two important figures also began to pursue the perfecting of sound reproduction. The first was Alexander Graham Bell, who would contribute much to the field of sound reproduction. The lesser known person was Emile Berliner, a German-born American immigrant whose invention of the flat disc record and gramophone would eventually eclipse both Edison's and Bell’s contributions.
While Bell’s lab focused on recording sound using a cylinder, as Edison eventually would, Berliner chose to produce a flat disc record since he saw the tremendous advantage of the disc. He knew a master stamper could be made to press thousands of copies which would bring mass-produced and affordable entertainment to the public. Bell with his ‘Graphophone’ and Edison with his ‘Phonograph’ would have great success with their chosen formats, but the ‘talking machine’ market would eventually be dominated by Berliner’s disc record, a format that has now been in continuous production for well over 100 years.
To bring his invention to market, in 1889 Berliner introduced a series of hand-driven gramophones and single-sided black disc records. These were initially seen by the public as more of a toy due to the inconsistency of the sound produced by the need to manually wind the handle to drive the record. Fortunately for Berliner, a local machinist by the name of Eldridge R. Johnson, developed a spring motor which led Berliner to launch the ‘Improved Gramophone’ of 1897 in the United States.
This machine, known as the ‘Trademark’ gramophone, was immortalized – with help from Nipper the dog. A painting called ‘His Master’s Voice,’ by British artist Francis Barraud, depicts Nipper curiously looking into a gramophone horn. The image was subsequently adopted as their trademark and became a famous and widely-recognized symbol within the recording industry.
The first gramophone available in the U.S. was this hand-driven gramophone circa 1894. This primitive talking machine marked the beginning of a company that would ultimately render the cylinder record obsolete and dominate the record industry throughout the world for decades to come. Photo courtesy of Mark Caruana-Dingli.
The next few years for Berliner were full of promise, with continual improvements in both recorded sound and record production. Sales were brisk with huge profits for both Berliner and Johnson. Unfortunately, problems arose when the company contracted to market and sell the gramophone became progressively unhappy with the Berliner-Johnson arrangement, which they believed was keeping them from realizing higher profits themselves. A complicated legal battle began leading Berliner to extricate himself from the proceedings by opting to sell his world-wide patents to Eldridge Johnson, who continued on with the struggle. With eventual victory in 1901, Johnson decided to change the company name to the Victor Talking Machine Company. He also incorporated Berliner’s recently-acquired rights to the painting ‘His Master’s Voice’ into the new company trademark.
A rare Canadian tip tray with the iconic ‘His Master’s Voice’ trademark which had its first use in Canada for the Berliner Gram-O-Phone Company in 1900 and subsequently adopted worldwide by the Victor Talking Machine Company. Photo courtesy of Mark Caruana-Dingli.
Luckily for Canadians, Berliner chose to relinquish all but his Canadian rights to the gramophone, moving his operations to Montreal in 1899. Once established, The Berliner Gram-O-Phone Company of Canada began production with the ‘Trademark’ or Model ‘A’ gramophone, a machine highly prized by Canadian collectors. Production of Canadian Berliner 7-inch, one-sided discs also began in 1899 and are readily identifiable by their medium brown colour, although some black discs can also be found.
An early single-sided Canadian Berliner Gram-O-Phone record circa 1899, which for a short time came embossed with the company trademark on the back. These records are among the first to use a paper label for the artist and song title. Note the brass centre grommet in the spindle hole. Photo courtesy of Mark Caruana-Dingli.
Highly coveted by collectors, this Canadian Trademark Model ‘A’ gramophone brought mass produced and affordable music to Canada and marked the beginning of the Canadian recording industry. Photo courtesy of Mark Caruana-Dingli.
Berliner continued his development of the gramophone with the introduction of many new models of machines that can be found only in Canada, creating a wonderful collectors' legacy of historically-significant talking machines. To date, more than 20 models or variations have been identified. Some time later, Berliner became the Canadian distributor for U.S.-made Victor gramophones, many of which have a Berliner ID plate affixed to the cabinets in addition to the Victor ID plate.
In Canada, Emile Berliner is considered the founder of the Canadian recording industry, an accomplishment for which he was posthumously honoured in 2000 with a special Juno Award presented by Canada’s own Sam the Record Man and accepted by Emile's Montreal-born grandson, Oliver Berliner. As Sam put it, Emile Berliner “made the Canadian recording industry what it is".
Miller & Miller Auctions is thrilled to offer the Jack Winkler Berliner Collection at its upcoming sale of Music Machines, Coin-Op and Advertising on September 19, 2020. The Winkler collection boasts more than 100 Berliner pieces and related objects and ephemera.
By Mark Caruana-Dingli
Mark Caruana-Dingli has written two books on the history of the Berliner gramophone and authored numerous articles on early recording history, including a contribution to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
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