Born and educated in Wolfenbuettel, Germany, he emigrated to the US in 1870 and worked on various jobs in Washington, DC, and New York. Fascinated by electricity, in 1876 he refined Alexander Graham Bell's recently invented telephone, making it a viable communication tool for long-distance use and he is credited with the invention of the telephone receiver. Berliner then improved Edison's phonographs by using shallow grooves on a flat disc to replace cylinders and with his inventions brought the modern phonograph into being. The Berliner Gramophone Co. introduced the concept of royalties for performers and instituted the recording contract. He produced the first shellac records and the first record shop. Berliner also made advances in aviation, designing and himself testing - when in his sixties - a variety of helicopters. He founded the Society for the Prevention of Sickness and devoted much time to children's health and nutrition.

Bibliography:Emile Berliner and the birth of the recording industry [electronic resource] / Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress. [Washington, D.C.] : Library of Congress, [20]02.

BERLINER, Emile. Muddy Jim, and other rhymes; 12 illustrated health jingles for children, with chapters in hygiene for their elders. [Washington, Jim Publication Co.] c1919.

WILE, Frederic William. Emile Berliner, maker of the microphone. Pp. 353. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill company, [c1926]

Links:

Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry

Emile Berliner (1851 - 1929)