Gramophones, or phonograph records from the 20th century, are antique record players that amplify sound acoustically when the needle is vibrating. They each contain a turntable where the disc record sits on and plays.
After Thomas Edison invented the tinfoil phonograph in 1877 and Alexander Graham Bell created the gramophone soon thereafter, Emile Berliner, a German immigrant, successfully invented the gramophone and records in 1887. As Edison and Bell only used their inventions to record music on round cylinders, Berliner was the first inventor to record on flat discs and records. Berliner first used glass, then zinc, and finally plastic as his records.
According to Howard Hope Gramophones & Phonographs, a company based out of England, there are two types. In the United States the disc-playing machines are known as phonographs, while in England they are always referred to as gramophones. There are "disc phonographs" and "cylinder phonographs" in America English and just plain gramophones in the United Kingdom.
From 1890 to around 1905, the earliest machines displayed a small horn that had support from the front of the cabinet. The soundbox narrow end was on the cabinet so that it would rest on the record during play. It basically looked like a wooden box with a metallic funnel sitting on top of it. After 1905, additions were made to the machine. The horn was created to be bigger and was supported by a "back bracket," which allowed the soundbox to move freely at the end of a tonearm. The toneram is now independent from the horn and lays lighter on the record.
Both types of machine, gramophones and phonographs, require a diverse pattern of record head to read the information on the record. England residents use the word "soundbox" for gramophone heads, as "reproducer" is used for phonograph heads. According to Howard Hope, the word "reproducer" is used for both types of head in American English.