Historical information

Thomas Edison (1847–1931), an American, invented the phonograph in 1877, making it possible to record sound waves vertically and reproduce them on a wax cylinder so they could be heard again. Later, the German American, Emile Berliner (1851-1929), improved on Edison’s principles, greatly increasing the quality of the reproduced sounds with his invention of the gramophone in 1887, which recorded the sound waves laterally onto a flat shellac disc, or ‘record’.

Records could be mass-produced in a factory where audio recordings were converted to a physical copy of that recording on a plate-sized disc. A gramophone machine reproduced the sound by spinning the record on a turntable at a specified number of rotations per minute (RPM) and using a stylus or needle to transfer the vibration via a membrane to a speaker, which amplified the sound.

Berliner helped set up affiliated businesses overseas. One of his representatives was William Barry Owen (1860–1914), who, on 23 February 1889, partnered with Edmund Trevor Lloyd Williams (1859–1946) in England to register The Gramophone Company. His Master’s Voice (HMV) soon became the company’s major recording label, popular worldwide. The business based the label's logo of a dog looking into a gramophone horn for ‘his master’s voice’ was based on a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which featured a terrier called Nipper beside a gramophone.

Early gramophone records were mostly made from a material referred to as shellac, a natural ingredient combined with slate powder, and a filler of manilla copal, wood resin, carnauba wax, and carbon black. Although Bakelite seemed a useful, synthetic product, it was unsuccessful as a product for records. Around the time of World War II, lightweight, flexible synthetic vinyl records began replacing shellac records.

Common diameters of records: 7 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch and 16 inch
Revolutions Per Minute include: 33 1/3, 45, 78
Minutes per side of record: 3, 5.5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 15 and 22
Labels, in minutes per side: Single Play 3-5 min, Extended Play (EP) 7-12 min, Long Play (LP) 12-22 min

Physical description

Shellac gramophone record with a black and gold label.
Title: Baby Face
Artist: Foxtrot by Ben Selvin and his Orchestra
Publisher: Brunswick
Number: A-3253
Size: 10 inch

Inscriptions & markings

White sticker on the label