1890-1899

Jukeboxes and Shellac Disks

1890 The cylinders of the phonograph have the capability to record 2-4 minutes of audio.

1890 The first nickel "juke boxes" help keep the recorded music industry alive during the depression years. Some cylinders have multiple listening tubes coming out of them and were so popular they took huge amounts of money.

1894 Emile Berliner modified the phonograph/graphophone to use a disc rather than a cylinder. Edison had tried and rejected this idea, but Berliner used it in part because the core of his invention was a way to mass produce records by stamping them out into a hard rubber material. Berliner's new US Gramophone Company made and sold 1000 machines electric-powered and hand-powered and sold 25,000 records.

1894 Guglielmo Marconi invents the spark transmitter with antenna (radio) in his hometown of Bologna, Italy.

1895 Edison begins mass production of the phonograph and its cylinders, and updates the original design by adding an amplifying horn to increase the sound output.

1896 Eldridge Johnson a machinist from New Jersey improves the gramophone by adding a spring motor designed by Levi Montross.

1897 Shellac discs, made from the Lac beetle, replace vulcanite as the playback medium.

1899 Edison formed his own company to make records, while the Berliner interests formed Victor. Through many name changes and one or two changes in ownership, Victor would eventually emerge as RCA-Victor in the U.S., JVC in Japan, HMV in England, Deutsche Gramophon in Germany, and others.