<P> In 1886 Berliner began experimenting with methods of sound recording . He was granted his first patent for what he called the "Gramophone" in 1887 . The patent described recording sound using horizontal modulation of a stylus as it traced a line on a rotating cylindrical surface coated with an unresisting opaque material such as lampblack, subsequently fixed with varnish and used to 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 . </P> <P> 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 US 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 United States Gramophone Company . He began marketing seven - inch records and a more substantial Gramophone, which was, however, still hand - propelled like the smaller toy machine . </P> <P> The difficulty in using early hand - driven Gramophones was getting the turntable to rotate at an acceptably steady speed while playing a disc . Engineer Eldridge R. Johnson, the owner of a small machine shop in Camden, New Jersey, assisted Berliner in developing a suitable low - cost wind - up spring motor for the Gramophone and became Berliner's manufacturer . Berliner gave Frank Seaman the exclusive sales rights in the US, but after disagreements Seaman began selling his own version of the Gramophone, as well as unauthorized copies of Berliner's records, and Berliner was legally barred from selling his own products . The US Berliner Gramophone Company shut down in mid-1900 and Berliner moved to Canada . Following various legal maneuvers, the Victor Talking Machine Company was officially founded by Eldridge Johnson in 1901 and the trade name "Gramophone" was completely and permanently abandoned in the US, although its use continued 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 district Saint Henri . </P> <P> Berliner's other inventions include a new type of loom for mass - production of cloth; an acoustic tile; 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 lifted its operator (Williams) "from the ground on three occasions" at Berliner's laboratory in the Brightwood neighborhood of Washington, D.C. </P>

The inventor of the phonograph in 1877 was quizlet