Editing Emile Berliner

{{short description|German-born American inventor (1851–1929)}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2009}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Emile Berliner
| image         = Emile Berliner.jpg
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1851|5|20}}
| birth_place   = [[Hanover]], [[Kingdom of Hanover]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1929|8|3|1851|5|20}}
| death_place   = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
|resting_place = [[Rock Creek Cemetery]]<br />Washington, D.C., U.S.
| nationality   = German, American
| other_names   = 
| known_for     = [[gramophone record|Disc record]], [[microphone]]
| alma_mater    = [[Cooper Union Institute]]
| occupation    = [[Inventor]]
| awards        = [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] (1913)
| spouse        = {{marriage|Cora Adler|1881|1929}}
| children      = 7 including [[Henry Berliner]]
}}
'''Emile Berliner''' (May 20, 1851 – August 3, 1929) originally '''Emil Berliner''', was a German-American inventor. He is best known for inventing the lateral-cut flat disc [[gramophone record|record]] (called a "gramophone record" in British and American English) used with a [[gramophone]]. He founded the [[Berliner Gramophone|United States Gramophone Company]] in 1894;<ref name="LoC">Library of Congress. [https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/berlhtml/berlgramo.html "Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry: The Gramophone"]. Retrieved 2017-01-19.</ref> The [[Gramophone Company]] in London, England, in 1897; [[Deutsche Grammophon]] in [[Hanover]], Germany, in 1898; and [[Berliner Gramophone#Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada|Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada]] in [[Montreal]] in 1899 (chartered in 1904). Berliner also invented what was probably the first radial aircraft engine (1908), a [[helicopter]] (1919), and acoustical tiles (1920s).{{fact|date=May 2022}}

==Early life ==
Berliner was born in [[Hanover]], Germany, in 1851 into a Jewish merchant family.<ref>"Concerning Emile Berliner, The Jew TO BE a Jew may mean one of several identities. For example, the Jew, Emile Berliner, the late inventor, called himself agnostic." B'nai B'rith, ''The National Jewish monthly: Volume 43; Volume 43''.</ref><ref>"In 1899, Berliner wrote a book, Conclusions, that speaks of his agnostic ideas on religion and philosophy." Seymour Brody, ''Jewish heroes & heroines of America: 151 true stories of Jewish American heroism'' (2003), page 119.</ref> He completed an apprenticeship to become a merchant, as was family tradition. While his real hobby was invention, he worked as an accountant to make ends meet. To avoid being drafted in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], Berliner migrated to the United States of America in 1870 with a friend of his father's, in whose shop he worked in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.netzwelt.de/news/86810-emil-berliner-google-wuerdigt-schallplatten-erfinder.html |title=Emil Berliner: Google würdigt den Schallplatten-Erfinder – NETZWELT |publisher=Netzwelt.de |access-date=2013-07-25}}</ref> He moved to New York and, living off temporary work such a paper route and cleaning bottles, he studied physics at night at the [[Cooper Union Institute]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stern.de/kultur/musik/emil-berliners-160-geburtstag-google-doodle-fuer-den-erfinder-der-schallplatte-1687091.html |title=Emil Berliners 160. Geburtstag: Google Doodle für den Erfinder der Schallplatte – Kultur |publisher=Stern.De |date=2011-05-20 |access-date=2013-07-25}}</ref>

==Career==
After some time working in a livery stable, Berliner became interested in the new [[Sound|audio]] technology of the [[telephone]] and [[phonograph]]. He invented an improved telephone transmitter, one of the first types of [[microphone]]s. The patent was acquired by the [[Bell Telephone Company]] (see ''[[The Telephone Cases]]''), but contested, in a long legal battle, by [[Thomas Edison]]. On February 27, 1901, the [[United States courts of appeals|United States Court of Appeals]] would declare Berliner's patent void and awarded Edison full rights to the invention. "Edison preceded Berliner in the transmission of speech," the court would write. "The use of carbon in a transmitter is, beyond controversy, the invention of Edison".<ref>[http://www.invent.org/Hall_Of_Fame/13.html Inventors Hall of Fame] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060610035645/http://www.invent.org/Hall_Of_Fame/13.html |date=June 10, 2006 }}, E. Berliner, {{US patent|0463,569}} filed June 1877, issued November 1891</ref><ref name="IEEE">{{cite web |title=Engineering and Technology History Wiki: Telephones – Variable Resistance Transmitters |date=9 January 2015 |url=http://ethw.org/Telephones#Variable_Resistance_Transmitters |access-date=2018-05-10 }}</ref>  

Berliner moved to [[Boston]] in 1877, where he became a United States citizen four years later. He worked for Bell Telephone until 1883, when he returned to Washington and established himself as a private researcher. 

=== Gramophone ===
[[File:BerlinerDisc1897.jpg|thumb|1897 Berliner Gramophone record]]
In 1886, Berliner began experimenting with methods of [[sound recording and reproduction]]. He was granted his first [[patent]] for what he called the "[[Berliner Gramophone|Gramophone]]" in 1887. The patent described recording sound using horizontal [[modulation]] of a [[stylus]] as it traced a line on a rotating [[Cylinder|cylindrical]] surface coated with an unresisting opaque material such as [[Carbon black#Pigment|lampblack]], subsequently fixed with [[varnish]] and used to [[photoengraving|photoengrave]] a corresponding groove into the surface of a metal playback cylinder. In practice, Berliner opted for the disc format, which made the photoengraving step much less difficult and offered the prospect of making multiple copies of the result by some simpler process such as [[electrotyping]], molding, or stamping. In 1888, Berliner was using a more direct recording method, in which the stylus traced a line through a very thin coating of wax on a zinc disc, which was then etched in acid to convert the line of bared metal into a playable groove.{{fact|date=May 2022}}

[[File:Toy Gramophone Kaemmer und Reinhardt.jpg|thumb|alt=E. Berliner Toy Gramophone, 1889|E. Berliner Toy Gramophone, 1889 (collection [[Musée des ondes Emile Berliner]], Montreal)]]
By 1890, a Berliner licensee in Germany was manufacturing a toy Gramophone and five-inch hard rubber discs (stamped-out replicas of etched zinc master discs), but because key U.S. patents were still pending they were sold only in Europe. Berliner meant his Gramophone to be more than a mere toy, and in 1894 he persuaded a group of businessmen to invest $25,000, with which he started the [[Berliner Gramophone|United States Gramophone Company]].<ref name="LoC"/> He began marketing seven-inch records and a more substantial Gramophone, which was, however, still hand-propelled like the smaller toy machine.{{fact|date=May 2022}}

The difficulty in using early hand-driven Gramophones was getting the turntable to rotate at an acceptably steady speed. Engineer [[Eldridge R. Johnson]], the owner of a small machine shop in Camden, New Jersey, helped Berliner develop a suitable low-cost wind-up spring motor for the Gramophone, then to manufacture it. Berliner gave Frank Seaman the exclusive sales rights in the U.S., but after disagreements Seaman began selling his own version of the Gramophone, as well as unauthorized copies of Berliner's records; ultimately, Berliner was legally barred from selling his own products. The U.S. Berliner Gramophone Company shut down in mid-1900 and Berliner moved to Canada. Following various legal maneuvers, Johnson founded the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] in 1901 and the trade name "Gramophone" was soon abandoned in the U.S., although its use continued in the UK and elsewhere. The Berliner Gramophone Co. of Canada was chartered on 8 April 1904 and reorganized as the Berliner Gramophone Co. in 1909 in Montreal's Saint Henri district.{{fact|date=May 2022}}

=== Rotary engine and helicopters ===
Berliner also developed a rotary engine and an early version of the [[helicopter]]. According to a July 1, 1909, report in ''[[The New York Times]]'', a helicopter built by Berliner and J. Newton Williams of [[Derby, Connecticut]], had Williams "from the ground on three occasions" at Berliner's laboratory in the [[Brightwood (Washington, D.C.)|Brightwood]] neighborhood of Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 1, 1909 |title=Helicoptre Lifts Itself and Man |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MbJIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=koEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4676,522421&dq=brightwood+washington+-coxey&hl=en |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=Youngstown Vindicator}}</ref>

Between 1907 and 1926, Berliner worked on technologies for vertical flight, including a lightweight rotary engine. Berliner obtained automobile engines from the [[Adams Company]] in Dubuque, Iowa, whose  Adams-Farwell automobile used [[Air-cooled engine|air-cooled]] three- or five-cylinder [[rotary engine]]s developed in-house by [[Fay Oliver Farwell]] (1859–1935). Berliner, his assistant R.S. Moore, and Farwell developed a 36-hp rotary engine for use in helicopters, an innovation on the heavier inline engines then in use.<ref name="nasmberl" /> 

In 1909, Berliner founded the [[Gyro Motor Company]] in Washington, D.C. The company's principals included Berliner, president; Moore, designer and engineer; and Joseph Sanders (1877–1944), inventor, engineer, and manufacturer. The manager of the company was [[Spencer Heath]] (1876–1963), a mechanical engineer who was connected with the [[American Propeller Manufacturing Company]], a manufacturer of aeronautical related mechanisms and products in Baltimore, Maryland. By 1910, Berliner was experimenting with the use of a vertically mounted tail rotor to counteract torque on his single-main-rotor design, a configuration that led to practical helicopters of the 1940s.<ref name="nasmberl" /> The building used for these operations exists at 774 Girard Street NW, Washington, D.C., where its principal facade is in the Fairmont-Girard alleyway.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 8, 2014 |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Standard Material Company/Gyro Motor Company |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/7881860d-b897-4f92-9eb2-0ae8969b8da9 |access-date=November 28, 2022 |website=U.S. Department of the Interior}}</ref> On June 16, 1922, Berliner and his son, [[Henry Berliner|Henry]], demonstrated a helicopter for the [[United States Army]]. 

Henry became disillusioned with helicopters in 1925, and the company shut down.<ref name="nasmberl" /> In 1926, Henry Berliner founded the Berliner Aircraft Company,<ref name="nasmberl">{{cite web|url=http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19240006000|title=Berliner Helicopter, Model 1924|year=1998|publisher=National Air and Space Museum|access-date=17 June 2010|archive-date=8 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408231605/http://nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19240006000|url-status=dead}}</ref> which merged to become [[Berliner-Joyce|Berliner-Joyce Aircraft]] in 1929.

=== Other ===
Berliner's other inventions include a new type of [[loom]] for mass-production of cloth and an [[Soundproofing|acoustic tile]].

Berliner, who suffered a nervous breakdown in 1914,<ref name="tr1921">{{cite journal|date=January 1921|title=In the Public Eye|journal=Technology Review|volume=23|pages=60–61}}</ref> also advocated for improvements in public health and [[sanitation]]. He also advocated for women's equality and, in 1908, established a scholarship program, the [[Sarah Berliner Research Fellowship]], in honor of his mother.

==Awards==
Berliner was awarded the [[Franklin Institute]]'s [[John Scott Medal]] in 1897, the [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] in 1913, and the [[Franklin Medal]] in 1929.{{fact|date=May 2022}}

==Death==
On August 3, 1929, Berliner died of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] at his home at the [[Marriott Wardman Park|Wardman Park Hotel]] in Washington, D.C., at the age of 78.<ref name="caso">{{cite web |last1=Frank |first1=Caso |date=June 8, 2011 |title=Emile Berliner (1851–1929) |url=https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=34 |access-date=January 12, 2018 |website=Immigrant Entrepreneurship |publisher=German Historical Institute}}</ref> He is buried in [[Rock Creek Cemetery]] in Washington, D.C., alongside his wife and a son, [[:de:Herbert Berliner|Herbert Samuel Berliner]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Scott|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.|date=2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-476-62599-7|page=59|edition=3}}</ref>

== Publications ==
=== Books ===
[[File:EmileBerliner.jpg|thumb|Emile Berliner with a [[veil]]ed woman]]
* {{cite book |last=Berliner |first=Emile |display-authors=0 |title=Conclusions |publisher=Kaufman Pub. Co. |publication-place=New York |year=1902 |oclc=875135708}} {{ISBN|978-0-8370-2292-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Berliner |first=Emile |display-authors=0 |title=The Milk Question and Mortality among Children Here and in Germany |publisher=Society for Prevention of Sickness |year=1904 |oclc=1176430061}}
* {{cite book |last=Berliner |first=Emile |title=Some Neglected Essentials in the Fight against Consumption |publisher=Society for the Prevention of Sickness |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |year=1907 |display-authors=0 |oclc=786335332 |url=https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:6574287$1i |via=Harvard Library Viewer}}
* {{cite book |last=Berliner |first=Emile |display-authors=0 |title=A Study Towards the Solution of Industrial Problems in the New Zionist Commonwealth |publisher=N. Peters |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |year=1919 |oclc=3713791 |url=http://library.huc.edu/pdf/presfiles/B-78_27-A_Study_Towards_the_Solution_of_Industrial_Problems_in_the_Zionist_Commonwealth-1919_rdf.pdf |via=Hebrew Union College Libraries}}
* {{cite book |last=Berliner |first=Emile |display-authors=0 |title=Muddy Jim and Other Rhymes: 12 Illustrated Health Jingles for Children |year=1919 |publisher=Jim Publication Company}} See also {{OCLC|184990307}}.

=== Patents ===
[[File:Berliner-marker.jpg|thumb|Marker for the Berliner family in [[Rock Creek Cemetery]], [[Washington, D.C.]]]]

''Patent images in [[Tag Image File Format]]''
*{{US patent|199141}} ''Telephone'' (induction coils), filed October 1877, issued January 1878
*{{US patent|222652}} ''Telephone'' (carbon diaphragm microphone), filed August 1879, issued December 1879
*{{US patent|224573}} ''Microphone'' (loose carbon rod), filed September 1879, issued February 1880
*{{US patent|225790}} ''Microphone'' (spring carbon rod), filed Nov 1879, issued March 1880
*UK Patent 15232 filed November 8, 1887
*{{US patent|372786}} ''Gramophone'' (horizontal recording), original filed May 1887, refiled September 1887, issued November 8, 1887
*{{US patent|382790}} ''Process of Producing Records of Sound'' (recorded on a thin wax coating over metal or glass surface, subsequently chemically etched), filed March 1888, issued May 1888
*{{US patent|463569}} ''Combined Telegraph and Telephone'' (microphone), filed June 1877, issued November 1891
*{{US patent|548623}} ''Sound Record and Method of Making Same'' (duplicate copies of flat, [[zinc]] disks by [[electroplating]]), filed March 1893, issued October 1895
*{{US patent|564586}} ''Gramophone'' (recorded on underside of flat, transparent disk), filed November 7, 1887, issued July 1896

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*{{cite book |author1=Berliner, Emile |author2=Berliner Gramophone Company |title=Gramophone: invented by Emile Berliner, "reproducing the human voice". |year=1871 |publisher=Berliner Gramophone Company |location=Philadelphia |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/berl0190/}}
* {{cite journal |last=Harvey |first=Wells F. |date=October 1912 |title=Dr. Berliner, Master Inventor |journal=[[World's Work|The World's Work: A History of Our Time]] |volume=XXIV |pages=673–675 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=F4pgvOJ2Xx8C&pg=PA673 |access-date=2009-07-10}}
* {{cite web |first=Samuel |last=Kurinsky |url=http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp027-1_berliner.htm |title=Emile Berliner – An Unheralded Genius: Part I – The Early Years |series=Fact Paper 27-I |publisher=Hebrew History Foundation |access-date=2015-05-06}}
* {{cite web |first=Samuel |last=Kurinsky |url=http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp027-2_berliner.htm |title=Emile Berliner – An Unheralded Genius: Part II – The Later Years |series=Fact Paper 27-II |publisher=Hebrew History Foundation |access-date=2015-05-06}}
* {{cite web |first=Samuel |last=Kurinsky |url=http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp002_phone.htm |title=The Telephone |series=Fact Paper 2 |publisher=Hebrew History Foundation |access-date=2015-05-06}}
* {{cite book |author=Wile, Frederic William |title=Emile Berliner Maker of the Microphone |year=1974 |publisher=Ayer Company |isbn=978-0-405-06062-5}}

== External links ==
{{Appletons' Poster|year=1900|Berliner, Emile}}
{{commons category}}
* {{Discogs artist}}
* [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/berlhtml/berlhome.html Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry] at the [[Library of Congress]] including audio archive and family tree
* Emile Berliner: [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/berlhtml/berlsp.html Inventor of the Gramophone] (Library of Congress)
* [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/berliner-inventor-gramophone-and-flat-record Berliner - Inventor of the Gramophone and the "flat" record - Canadian Communication Foundation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020212445/http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/berliner-inventor-gramophone-and-flat-record |date=2021-10-20 }}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051215182843/http://www.audioannals.com/berlinere.htm Berliner timeline]}} and patent list
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060715020638/http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/berliner.htm The Berliner helicopters] at the [[National Air and Space Museum]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081020074440/http://pgparks.com/places/historic/cpam/inside.html Berliner helicopter at College Park, Maryland]
* Berliner in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20060610035645/http://invent.org/hall_of_fame/13.html Inventor's Hall of Fame]
* [http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/berlemil.html Illustrated Berliner page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060424071537/http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/berlemil.html |date=2006-04-24 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070315120928/http://fi.edu/case_files/berliner/ Contents of Berliner's case file] at The Franklin Institute contains evidence and correspondence with Berliner regarding the award of his 1929 Franklin Medal for acoustic engineering and development of the gramophone
* [https://moeb.ca Musée des ondes Emile Berliner] in [[Montreal, Quebec]] contains over 30,000 recordings and other artifacts
* [http://www.emil-berliner-studios.com/en/chronik1.html Website Emil Berliner Studios in Berlin, Germany] – The History of the Record by Peter K. Burkowitz (the other side)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berliner, Emile}}
[[Category:1851 births]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American inventors]]
[[Category:20th-century American inventors]]
[[Category:American agnostics]]
[[Category:American health activists]]
[[Category:American women's rights activists]]
[[Category:American Zionists]]
[[Category:Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery]]
[[Category:Cooper Union alumni]]
[[Category:Discovery and invention controversies]]
[[Category:German agnostics]]
[[Category:German emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:19th-century German inventors]]
[[Category:German people of Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Jewish agnostics]]
[[Category:People from the Kingdom of Hanover]]
[[Category:Recipients of Franklin Medal]]