Physical distortions of spiral grooves engraved, etched, carved, or impressed into the surface of a spinning cylinder or disc, referred to as a 'record,' capture sound wave patterns. To reproduce the sound, the surface is rotated in the same way, while a playback stylus traces the groove and is vibrated by it, weakly replicating the recorded sound.
A phonograph, also known as a gramophone or, since the 1940s, a record player, is a mechanical and analog device that records and reproduces sound. Early acoustic phonographs produced sound waves by vibrating a diaphragm, which was either connected to the outside air via a flaring horn or directly to the listener's ears using stethoscope-style headphones.
In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory invented the graphophone in the 1880s, using wax-coated paper cylinders and a cutting blade that moved from side to side in a diagonal groove around the disc.
Emile Berliner, who coined the term 'phonograph' for disc vinyl recordings, pioneered the changeover from gramophone cylinders to flattened discs with a helical groove running from the periphery to near the center in the 1890s. Over time, modifications were made to the turntable and its motor system, the stylus or needle, the pickup framework, and the sound and equalization systems.