Which inventor built the first successful phonograph, publicly demonstrated in 1877?

Thomas Edison built the first successful phonograph and publicly demonstrated it in 1877.

Edison’s machine recorded and reproduced sound by tracing a groove into a sheet of tinfoil wrapped around a rotating cylinder. A person spoke into a mouthpiece, and vibrations moved a stylus that cut the recording. Reversing the process allowed the stylus to reproduce the sound.

The phonograph was significant because earlier inventions transmitted or amplified sound but did not preserve it for later playback. Edison originally imagined uses including business dictation, music, and educational recordings. The tinfoil recordings were fragile and could usually be played only a limited number of times.

A common mix-up is confusing Edison’s phonograph with the later gramophone. Emile Berliner’s gramophone used flat discs and became the foundation of the familiar record industry, while Edison’s first successful machine used a cylinder. Edison received a US patent for the phonograph in 1878.