Kämmer & Reinhardt Berliner Gramophone

Emile Berliner's flat disc first reached buyers as a German toy. Kämmer & Reinhardt of Waltershausen made this hand-cranked gramophone under license from Berliner, for hard rubber discs about 5 inches across. There is no motor at all: the speed depended on the listener's own cranking, with the disc meant to turn somewhere around 100 to 150 times a minute. The Science Museum in London dates this one to about 1890. Crude as it is, this is the flat disc's first appearance on sale.