1977 is the 100th 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 Academic 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.

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

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India