The phonograph, a device that makes audible recorded sounds imprinted within the narrow grooves of phonograph records, is made of several parts: a tone arm, a revolving turntable on which a record spins, a pickup cartridge that sends vibrations in the form of electric waves to an amplifier that boosts the volume of these waves, and a loudspeaker that broadcasts them as sounds. On the tone arm is a needle, usually made of diamond or sapphire, which must be replaced periodically. The phonograph developed fairly quickly after its invention in the late 1870s, growing in sophistication and popularity until it became by the early twentieth century a common accessory in American households.

The American inventor Thomas Alva Edison is credited with inventing the phonograph, which was reportedly his favorite creation. Although a Frenchman named Charles Cros (1842-1888) had earlier written down plans for a similar device, it was...