The phonograph (Greek, literally: writer of sounds) is an acoustic, mechanical recording and playback device. The term refers to a speech recording and playback device, the invention of which was made public by Thomas Edison on November 21, 1877. He handed in a patent for the machine on December 24 of the same year and the patent was registered on February 19, 1878. The actual creator of the first phonograph design was the French poet and inventor Charles Cros. He did not, however, possess the necessary finances to have his design patented. Edison’s cylinder phonographs were both the predecessors and competitors of the shellac and the gramophone. They were originally intended for recording and playback of sound using hard-wax cylinders. Edison used the so-called hill-and-dale recording method, whereby an audio signal was held vertically in the grooves on the outside of a rotating cylinder.

The user of the device spoke into the horn while the cylinder was turned slowly. The diaphragm was then moved up and down by sonic vibrations and a needle inscribed the sounds as wave-formed increases and dips in the wax cylinder. The recording, regardless of whether spoken or musical in nature, had to be delivered at great volume, in order to create the necessary acoustic pressure. If the user then moved the needle over the cylinder groove at the same speed, the recorded sound caused the diaphragm to vibrate and play sound via the horn.