Berliner hand crank Gramophone

This article is part of the ANTIQUE PHONOGRAPH, GRAMOPHONE AND TALKING MACHINE IDENTIFICATION GUIDES.
SEE ALSO: Our listings of outside horn talking machines for sale.

Emile Berliner of Philadelphia experimented with the manufacture of flat disc records and disc talking machines in the early 1890s. Berliner had a background in telephony, and was to hold several important early telephone and microphone patents.

This string wind Berliner, first offered for sale in 1894, was the ancestor of all disc talking machines. It was difficult to regulate the speed with this hand crank arrangement, and the problem of a reliable spring motor was not solved until Berliner's association with Eldridge Johnson, culminating in the Improved Gramophone of 1898.

At this stage in the history of the talking machine the black funnel horn was more functional than decorative.
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Details of the name plate, reading "Berliner Gramophone Company, Philadelphia." The string-wind Berliner has been reproduced, down to the nameplate. The machine photographed here is original.
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