78 EARLY UK BERLINER - MR GEORGE GASKIN G
  £   34
  $   45

 


£ 34 Sold For
Mar 9, 2007 Sold Date
Mar 2, 2007 Start Date
£   5 Start price
4   Number Of Bids
  Great Britain Country Of Seller
eBay Auctioned at
 
save auction  

Description

AN INCREDIBLY RARE OPPORTUNITY TO BUY ONE OF THE FIRST EVER RECORDS SOLD IN THE UK!!

THIS BERLINER DISC WAS RECORDED BETWEEN 1897 & 1899 BY MR. GEORGE GASKIN

EMILE BERLINER

 

While Emile Berliner never actually appeared on any records, no records could have appeared without him. The compact disc generation can also mull over the man's importance, as Berliner was the first man to introduce the concept of a "disc" as a medium to be played on his newly invented gramophone. His competition at the time, the much better known Thomas Edison still thought a cylinder was the way to go, but he was ever so wrong. The disc concept was conceptually the key to the entire concept of mass production of recordings   Berliner came to Washington from his native Germany at the age 19; the year was 1870. At home he had worked as a printer and fabric store clerk. He had already demonstrated talent as an inventor, coming up on the latter job with a new type of loom. In the United States he studied physics part time and worked in a chemical laboratory. Seeing Alexander Graham Bell demonstrate his telephone at the U.S. Centennial Exposition inspired him to come up with improvements, like many inventors of the day. In a bit more than a decade Berliner had designed a basic microphone that vastly improved transmission sound and had unveiled both a gramophone that played flat discs and a system for pressing these records. He invited musicians to come and record for him on zinc plates, thereby becoming the recording industry's first, and certainly most intelligent, A&R man. Berliner's gramophone and pressing system was purchased by the Victor Talking Machine Company, which later became RCA. Abroad, Berliner personally founded Deutsche Grammophon and the British Gramophone as his international marketing channel. It was Berliner who came up with a cute trademark taken from a painting of a dog listening to a phonograph, an image that was appropriated lock, stock and canine by RCA. Berliner also invented a helicopter which flew in 1919, and the first radial aircraft engine in 1908. Nor was he only concerned with machines. He helped form a public health organization to safeguard the U.S. milk supply, and in 1911 he established a fellowship in his mother Esther Berliner's name to assist women conducting scientific research.
  DISC DETAILS   BERLINERS GRAMOPHONE - covered by English and Continental Patents   There'll come a time sung by Mr. George Gaskin  LONDON   Catalogue number -  2-2130   RECORD DATED - unknown (probably 1897-9)   the record details are etched directly into the black shellac (there were no labels) - so these pictures are incredibly enhanced in order to read the etchings. This also enhances even the slightest of scratches so it doesn't look that great in the photos - but I have to say that for a Berliner this is in Good Condition!! After a noisy start It plays strongly on my garrard deck without skipping  - and the level of the recording is reasonably strong with only a moderate level of background noise.   I hope I still sound as good when I get to be 107 years old !!!!   "Mr George Gaskin" is accompanied by a piano. I am not sure that this is the same "George Gaskin" as on the USA records!   THIS IS A VERY RARE AND HISTORIC RECORD!!!

SO DON'T MISS OUT !!!   -  BID NOW!!

On 29-Oct-05 at 08:29:50 BST, seller added the following information:

Pay instantly with your debit or credit card through PayPal.

 




price rating