Australian Phonographs & Gramophones
Edison invented the Phonograph in August 1877; a mere 10 months later, on 14 June 1878, the Phonograph was demonstrated in Australia to a meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria by the Society’s Honorary Secretary, Alex Sutherland.
The Illustrated Australian News. 2 September 1878
Alexander Sutherland published 'The Sounds of the Consonants, as Indicated by the Phonograph' in the Society's journal in November 1878.
Throughout the history of sound reproduction, Australians were never far behind the Europeans and Americans. Indeed, Australian inventions and innovations were often incorporated into the latest analog designs and mechanisms.
This section highlights some of the rarer Australian-made Gramophones, and provides a concise history of the early Australian music industry.
DID YOU KNOW: Australian laminated 78rpm records are the best quality 78s with the least surface noise of any 78rpm record. Master record stampers would be shipped all over the world to locally press records in each country. The only difference was the medium they were pressed on and the local label printed. Most companies used a solid shellac mix (incorporating recycled shellac or fine sawdust), which was cheaper to produce 100,000+ records but also created terrible surface noise. Columbia used a solid biscuit and coated it on both sides with a very high quality of shellac for their laminated pressing. HMV and Columbia (now EMI) laminated pressings in Australia were all printed at the Columbia factory in Sydney.
Here are a few interesting Australian links:
- Check out this project where we extract audio from an aluminium "Voice Record". It was recorded in London during the war by an Australian soldier - a vocal message for the family back home
- Australia's famous landscape artist, John S. Loxton and his handbuilt HMV 157.
- An external site with an A to Z of Australian Gramophones
- Detailed site on the Rexonola
