Editing Phonograph (section)

==Disc vs. cylinder as a recording medium==
Discs are not inherently better than cylinders at providing audio fidelity. Rather, the advantages of the format are seen in the manufacturing process: discs can be stamped, and the matrixes to stamp disc can be shipped to other printing plants for a global distribution of recordings; cylinders could not be stamped until 1901–1902, when the gold moulding process was introduced by Edison.<ref name="the cylinder preservation and digitalization project">{{cite web |title=cylinder history |date=2005-11-16 |url=http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-goldmoulded.php |access-date=2012-06-17 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209071459/http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-goldmoulded.php |archive-date=2012-12-09}}</ref>

[[File:VictorVPhonograph.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A Victor V phonograph, circa 1907]]
Through experimentation, in 1892, Berliner began commercial production of his disc records and "gramophones". His "[[phonograph record]]" was the first disc record to be offered to the public. They were {{convert|5|in|cm|spell=in}} in diameter and recorded on one side only. Seven-inch (17.5&nbsp;cm) records followed in 1895. The same year, Berliner replaced the hard rubber used to make the discs with a [[shellac]] compound.<ref>{{cite web |title=the early gramophone |url=http://homepage.mac.com/oldtownman/recording/berliner.html |access-date=2012-06-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113014850/http://homepage.mac.com/oldtownman/recording/berliner.html |archive-date=2012-01-13}}</ref> Berliner's early records had poor sound quality, however. Work by [[Eldridge R. Johnson]] eventually improved the sound fidelity to a point where it was as good as the cylinder.<ref name="life">{{cite magazine |title=First It Said 'Mary' |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|LIFE]] |first=Robert |last=Wallace |date=1952-11-17 |pages=87–102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFIEAAAAMBAJ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306233735/https://books.google.com/books?id=sFIEAAAAMBAJ |archive-date=2017-03-06}}</ref>{{When?|date=February 2025}}

Wax cylinders would continue to be used into the 1920s, with New York City-based [[Czechs|Czech]] immigrant, businessman, and inventor [[Alois Benjamin Saliger]] using cylinders for his "Psycho-Phone" or "Psychophone", a specialized phonograph or gramophone that Saliger intended to be used in the field of [[psychology]]. Invented in 1927 for [[sleep learning]], the Psychophone featured a clock mounted on top of a phonograph, with a repeater device for rewinding and continuously replaying records. While Edison machines had a spring-powered motor, powered by crank on the side, Psychophone models featured an electric-powered motor. Saliger patented the device in 1932 as the "automatic time-controlled suggestion machine".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wright |first1=Gwen |title=PsychoPhone |url=https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigation/psychophone/index.html |website=History Detectives: Special Investigations |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) |access-date=12 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Benjamin |first1=Ludy T. |title=The Psycho-Phone |url=https://centerhistorypsychology.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/the-psycho-phone/ |access-date=12 February 2025 |work=Cummings Center Blog |agency=Center for the History of Psychology |publisher=University of Akron |date=23 February 2017}}</ref>