A commemorative postage stamp on the Centenary of the Sound Recording : Gramophone, a device for mechanical recording and reproduction of sound :

Issued by India

Issued on Jul 20, 1977

Issued for : Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department is happy to commemorate the centenary of the invention of Phonograph by issuing a postage stamp.

Description of Design : The design of the stamp depicts a Berliner gramophone. The photograph is by courtesy of Polydor International, Hannover (W. Germany).

Designed by : Shri Benoy Sarkar

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Ochre and black

Denomination : 200 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 X 2.44 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 20,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printed at : India Security Press

About : 

• 1977 is the 100^th anniversary of the recorded sound, an invention that has changed social structures and even life styles to the benefit of mankind.
• In April, 1877, Charles Cros, French poet, intellectual and inventor of a method of colour photography, had deposited with the Academie des Sciences in Paris a proposal for a machine to record and replay sound. At about the same time and quite independently, Thomas Alva Edison, while experimenting with means of transmitting signals by telegraph, discovered a method of recording and replaying intelligible words. Legend has it that the first sentence successfully recorded and replayed to the astonishment of the listeners was “Mary had a little lamb“. On December 24, 1877, Edison applied for a patent which was in due course granted. It was the first patent to cover means of recording and replaying sound.
• In the same year, 1877, Emile Berliner successfully developed a method for manufacturing recorded discs quickly and cheaply in large quantities. Berliner has been described by many as the father of the Record Business. In May 1888 he demonstrated the working prototype of a ‘disc playing‘ gramophone. In 1893 gramophones were first offered for sale to the public. The gramophone had arrived.

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