<P> The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison . While other inventors had produced devices that could record sounds , Edison 's phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound . His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet wrapped around a rotating cylinder . A stylus responding to sound vibrations produced an up and down or hill - and - dale groove in the foil . Alexander Graham Bell 's Volta Laboratory made several improvements in the 1880s and introduced the graphophone , including the use of wax - coated cardboard cylinders and a cutting stylus that moved from side to side in a zig zag groove around the record . In the 1890s , Emile Berliner initiated the transition from phonograph cylinders to flat discs with a spiral groove running from the periphery to near the center , coining the term gramophone for disc record players , which is predominantly used in many languages . Later improvements through the years included modifications to the turntable and its drive system , the stylus or needle , and the sound and equalization systems . </P>
who was the inventor who developed a way to record sound
Thomas Edison