Disc Gramophone “Exposicion”

1900, Spain

A decade after the invention and rising popularity of cylinder phonographs, the German-born American inventor Emile Berliner introduced a spiral grove on a flat rotating disc in 1887, and called his invention the gramophone.

At the turn of the century, Berliner initiated the transition from phonograph cylinders to gramophone records: flat, double-sided discs with a spiral groove running from the periphery toward the center. Many different inventors made various improvements to the gramophone over the years, including modifications to the turntable and its drive system, the needle and stylus, as well as the sound and equalization systems.

This rare “Exposicion” disc gramophone was manufactured in Spain in the 1900s. Its most distinctive feature is its unusual green trumpet-shaped horn. On the front of the gramophone’s simple oak case, the name “Exposicion” is prominently displayed.