The Phonograph
Phonograph, also known as record player, electromechanical instrument for reproducing sound from a record. A record is a vinyl disk that has a spiral groove with tiny bumps on the walls of the groove; the bumps encode a musical or other type of recording. has four principal components: the turntable, the tonearm, the stylus, and the amplifier, although an amplifier is not always incorporated into the instrument.
The turntable is a flat, circular platform upon which the record is placed. An electric motor rotates the turntable at constant speed, usually 332, 45, or 78 revolutions per minute (rpm). The tonearm is a rod with a jewel-tipped stylus, or needle, at its free end. The tonearm ...
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built by the American inventor Thomas Edison in 1877. Edison recorded sound on a cylinder, which was then rotated against a needle. The needle moved up and down in the grooves of the cylinder, producing vibrations that were amplified by a conical horn. Because of the vertical movement of the needle, this recording method was called the "hill-and-dale" process.
Edison had intended the phonograph to be used primarily as a dictating machine in offices. However, with the invention of the flat-disk phonograph, or gramophone, by the German-born American inventor Emile Berliner in 1887, the phonograph began to develop as an artistic medium for recording the great singers and musical instrumentalists of the time. The gramophone played records at 78 rpm, and the needle moved laterally (from side to side) in a groove of even depth. Like the cylinder phonographs, it reproduced sound with a needle whose mechanical vibrations were amplified by using a cone-shaped horn. Most such phonographs, ...
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operation of a sound-recording system may, however, be m ffb ost easily understood by considering the process of recording sound by the now obsolete mechanical method. In this method, sound waves are used directly or indirectly to actuate a stylus or cutter that engraves on a disk or cylinder a wavy-line pattern corresponding to the pattern of sound waves. This process, with minor modifications, was used for many years in the production of phonograph records. In the direct method of mechanical recording, sound waves strike a very light diaphragm of metal or other substance and set it into motion. Attached to the diaphragm is a needle or cutting point that vibrates with the diaphragm. ...
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The Phonograph. (2007, December 21). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Phonograph/76194
"The Phonograph." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 21 Dec. 2007. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Phonograph/76194>
"The Phonograph." Essayworld.com. December 21, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Phonograph/76194.
"The Phonograph." Essayworld.com. December 21, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Phonograph/76194.
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