212 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



to iudent a traveling sheet of tinfoil, or other like substance, to a depth varying 

 in accordance with the amplitudes of the sound waves to be recorded. This at- 

 tempt is necessarily more or less ineffective, for the reason that the force of 

 a diaphragm vibrating under the impact of sound waves is very weak, and that 

 in the act of overcoming the resistance of the tinfoil, or other material, the 

 vibrations of the diaphragm are not only weakened, but are also modified. 

 Thus, while the record contains as many undulations as the sound which pro- 

 duced it, and in the same order of succession, the character of the recorded un- 

 dulations Is more or less different from those of the sounds uttered against the 

 diaphragm. There is, then, a true record of the pitch, but a distorted record 

 of the quality of the sounds obtained. 



With a view of overcoming this defect, it has been attempted to engrave. In- 

 stead of indent, a record of the vibrations of the diaphragm, by employing a 

 stylus, shaped and operated like a chisel, upon a suitably prepared surface; 

 but, even in this case, the disturbing causes above referred to are still present. 

 In addition to this, if in the apparatus of the phonograph or graphophone type, 

 it is attempted to avoid the disturbing influence of the increase of resistance of 

 the record surface, with the depth of the indentation or cut as much as possible, 

 by primarily adjusting the stylus so as to touch the record surface only lightly, 

 then another disturbing influence is brought into existence by the fact that with 

 such adjustment, when the diaphragm moves outwardly, the stylus will leave 

 the record surface entirely, so that part of each vibration will not be recorded 

 at all. This is more particularly the case when loud sounds are recorded, and 

 it manifests itself in the reproduction, which then yields quite unintelligible 

 sounds. 



It is the object of my invention to overcome these and other difliculties by 

 recording spoken words or other sounds without perceptible friction between 

 the recording surface and the recording stylus, and by maintaining the unavoid- 

 able friction uniform for all vibrations of the diaphragm. The record thus ob- 

 tained, almost frictionless, I copy in a solid resisting material, by any of the 

 methods hereinafter described ; and I employ such copy of the original record 

 for the reproduction of the recorded sounds. 



Instead of moving the recording stylus at right angles to, and against the 

 record surface, I cause the same to move under the influence of sound waves 

 parallel with and barely in contact with such surface, which latter is covered 

 with a layer of any material that offers a minimum resistance to the action of 

 the stylus operating to displace the same. 



He then proceeds to a detailed description of his instrument, which 

 he terms a " gramophone." 



Nowadays the term " phonograph " is popularly applied to a 

 sound-reproducing machine which plays a cylinder record, while 

 " gramophone " is often incorrectly used for any disk machine. This 

 distinction is not, however, correct. It is a fact worth noting that 

 the first figure of the drawings in Berliner's original patent shows a 

 record wound on a cylindrical support, whereas the first figure in 

 Edison's patent shows a disk record, thus directly contradicting the 

 popular distinction just referred to. 



According to the specification of his first patent, Mr. Berliner made 

 his sound record as follows: He took a strip of paper, parchment, or 

 metal, A (fig. 3), stretched it round a drum, B, and coated it with 



