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The Berliner 5 inch Records online Catalogue - le catalogue en ligne des disques Berliner de 12,5 cm
Catalogue number	Title	Type	Available documents (image text and sound)
1	Vater unser	speech
2	Deutsche Sprichwőrter	speech
3	Struwelpeter	?
4	Glocke, I. Teil [also 204]	speech
5	Glocke, II. Teil [also 205]	speech
6
7	Der Kampf mit dem Drachen [also 207]	speech
8	Der Handschuh	speech
9	Maria Stuart	speech
10	Daumenlutscher	speech
11	Suppenkaspar	speech
12	Zahlen, Tage, Monate sprich.	speech
[...]
16	A little ship was on the sea	speech
17	Proverbs	speech
18	Father William	speech
[...]
20	Old King Cole	speech
[...]
23	Manfred	speech
24	Proverbs	speech
25	Lords Prayer	speech
26	Twinkle, twinkle little star	speech
27	Thou knowest my pretty damsel - new online	speech
28	Morning hymn	speech
29	Jack and Jill - Tom,Tom, the Piper's son	speech
30	Mary had a little lamb	speech
31	A healthy boy was Alfred Jones	speech
32	Tom,Tom, the Piper's son	speech
33	Simple Simon	speech
34	My name is the ‘Gramophone’	speech
35	Cock Robin	speech
36	Sing a song of sixpence	speech
37	Old Mother Hubbard	speech
38	Nursery rhymes	speech
39	English numbers and days	speech
40	We don’t want to fight	song
40	Vinyl pressing for a commemorative publication in 1998	song
41	For you, my darling	song
42	Auld lang syne	song
[...]
44	My grandfather’s clock	speech
45	Thierstimmen - Voix d'animaux - Farmyard imitations	vocal
46	A warrior bold	song [?]
47	Yankee doodle	song [?]
48	Rule Britannia	song
49	Hark the herald…	song
50	Blue bells of Scotland	song
51	Sweet by and by	song[?]
52	Home sweet home	song
53	Ta ra ra boom-de-ay	song
54	Knock’d ‘em in the old Kent Road	song
55	God save the Queen	song
56	Long, long ago	song
57	Hi Jerry Ho	song
[...]
59	Tit-Willow [Mikado]	song
[...]
62	Mikado, the flowers that bloom	song
[...]
65	Whist! The Bogie Man	song
[...]
67	God bless the prince of Wales	song
68	Tom, he was a piper’s son	song
[...]
German catalogue, 51 to c.131
51	Gaudeamus [also 1251]	song
52	In einem Kűhlen Grunde	song
53	Wacht am Rhein	song
54	Rheinlied	song
55	Loreley	song
56	Treue Lieben	song
57	Freies Leben	song
58	Lützows Jagd	song
59	O, schöne Zeit	song
60	Österreichische Hymne [also 260]	song
61	Les Cloches de Corneville	song
62	500,000 Teufel	song
63	Preussenlied	song
64	Soldatenlied	song
65	Andreas Hofer	song
66	Kupferschmied	song
67	So wie du	song
67	unid. recitation
68	Kanapee-Lied	song
69	Du Schwert an meiner Linken	song
70a	Wirthshauslied u. Ach du lieber Augustin	song
70b	Wirthshauslied u. Lott is todt	song
71	Heil Dir im Siegerkranz	song
72	Deutschland über alles [also 272]	song
73	Ach wie ist’s möglich dann	song
74	Wenn ich einmal der Herrgott wär	?
75	Gruss aus Kiel [also 375]	instr. quintet
76	Alte Dessauer [also 376]	instr. quintet
77	Hohenfriedberger [also 377]	instr. quintet
78	Gasparone	instr. quintet
[...]
80	Deutschland	instr. quintet
81	Zu Augsburg	instr. quintet
82	Marsch [also 382?]	instr. quintet
83	Loreley [also 383]	instr. quintet
84	Hohenfriedberger mit Trommelbegleitung [also 384]	iq
[...]
88	God save the Queen [also 388] - New online	instr. quintet
[...]
99	God save the Queen	‘spielt’
100	Stille Nacht [also 584] - New online	trumpet quartet
101	Jägerlied [Der Freischütz]	trumpet quartet
102	Marsch No. 1	trumpet quartet
[...]
104	Loreley [also 140,or 240]	song [choral]
[...]
106	unid. march	instr.?
107	Jagdruf der Diana	trumpet quartet
[...]
111	Deutschland	trumpet solo
112	The Mail	trumpet solo
113	Bugle calls	bugle [?]
114	Morgen fort	?
[...]
116	Drinking song [Im tiefen Keller]	trombone solo
[...]
120	Boccaccio	banjo duet
120	Boccaccio	piano
121	Bierwalzer [also P 476]	piano
122	Prophet- march	piano
[...]
124	Blue Danube	piano
[...]
128	Variations	piano
129	Lohengrin	piano
130	Variations	clarinet
131	Der Freischütz [Weber]	?
[...]
140	Loreley [also 104 and 240]	song
[...]
152	Le corbeau et le renard	speech
[...]
160	Je regardais en l'air [les Cloches de Corneville]	song
161	La Marseillaise - New online	song
[...]
164	Le Père la Victoire	song
165	La Boiteuse	song
[...]
204	Glocke I. Teil	speech
205	Glocke II. Teil	speech
[...]
218	Es lächelt der See, es ladet zum Bade	speech
225	Fra Diavolo [Auber] - New online	song
[...]
227	Lena la bella Lena	speech
[...]
240	Loreley [104/240]
241	Lobe den Herren	song
[...]
244	Schwertlied [Weber]	song
[...]
246	Hoch [Abt]	song
[...]
251	Gaudeamus [1251 in Eichstätt list]	song
[...]
272	Deutschland über alles	song
[...]
275	Deutsches Vaterland	song
[...]
278	Crambambuli - New online	song
[...]
280	Gesänge	song
[...]
284	‘appears commercial’	?
285	ditto	?
[...]
287	ditto	?
288	ditto	?
[...]
291	Hobellied [Kreutzer]	song
292	Was blasen die Trompeten?	non-musical [!]
[...]
303	Czarenlied [Lortzing]	song
304	Auch ich war ein Jüngling	song
[...]
306	unid. recitation
[...]
377	Hohenfriedberger - [also 77]	instr. quintet
[...]
382	Radetzky-Marsch [J Strauss]	instr. quintet
383	Loreley	instr. quintet
384	Hohenfriedberger Marsch	instr. quintet
[...]
388	God save the Queen	instr. quintet
[...]
401	Es ist bestimmt [Mendelssohn]	instr. quin.
402
403	Jäger’s Abschied	instr. quin.
[...]
408	Ungarischer Tanz Nr. 6 [Brahms]	instr. quintet
[...]
467	Post - New online	piston solo
[...]
P 476	Bierwalzer [also 121]	piano solo
[...]
501	El Credo	speech
[...]
503	Numeros, Dias, Meses	speech
[...]
509	Versos y Canto	speech - song
[...]
511	Me gustan todas - Aroro mi nena [printed 211 on paper label]	song
[...]
530	Numeri, la Settimana, le Mesi, etc.	speech
531	I Due Ladri e l'Asino	speech
532	La Rondinella	speech
[...]
584	Stille Nacht [also 100]	instr. quartet
[...]
600	Old-fashioned street organ	instr.
[...]
606	Concert piece	instr. quintet [?]
[...]
609	Mikado [?]	instr. quintet [?]
[...]
640	Ach, wie ist’s möglich	instr. duet
[...]
650	Marsch, Trommel	drum solo
[...]
810	Vater unser [Böhmisch]	speech [?]
[...]
852	unid. recitation
[...]
860	unid. male vocal
	A gutta percha blade - échantillon de gutta percha

 

Contributors and credits (to be completed)

A special tribute is due to Paul Cleary and George Taylor † who provided the core of the list.
Other contributors are Peter Adamson, Jalal Aro, Ernie Bayley, Paolo Brenni, Tim Brooks, Henri Chamoux, Dominic Combe, Michael E. Gunrem, Allen Koenigsberg, Stephan Puille, Dieter Schulze, Horst Wahl, James Wilkins and Christian Zwarg.

Join the contributors.
As a private collector or institution, if you are the happy owner of (a) 5 inch Berliner record(s) you can give your own contribution.

The main rules are as follows :
We need a good wav file of the complete recording, at least 44,1KHz at 16bits, and a flat scan jpg image of each side of the disc with a blue or grey color paper as background. Resolution of the scan should be at least 600 dpi for a future paper publication of some details of the discs (3070x3070 pixels for a 13 cm square which comes roughly to a file of 6Mo or 7Mo). Otherwise you are welcome with your records to come and visit the Archeophone home near Paris, in order to make first quality transfers of your own 5 inch records. These precious records can also be shipped in many secured ways on your convenience.

Mp3s made upon your wav file(s) will not be audible entirely on the site, unless you wish to share it entirely.
Only 30 to 40 seconds will be audible for each record online (a complete track takes 1 minute typically).
Medium size photos only are displayed.
All contributors will receive a free copy of the final publication (probably an illustrated book with audio CD) containing all known tracks in high quality audio wav files and with high quality photos.
All contributors have their name on the webpage (not if not desired). They are not identified individually as owners of any record in particular (they are if desired).
Contributors can publish high definition photos and complete tracks of their own Berliner records if desired.

For now, the several records shown here are coming from 8 different private and public collections in Europe and the USA.

Articles

Adamson, Peter. "12.5 cm Berliner Discs." Talking Machine Review, No 36, October 1975.
Adamson, Peter. "The First London Disc Recordings." Hillandale News, No. 207, December 1995, pp. 411-422.
Cleary, Paul and Taylor, George. " 12.5 cm/5-inch Berliner discography progress report" For the record - City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society Limited, No. 8, Winter 2003/4, pp. 441-442.
Gunrem, Michael E. „Die Allerersten Schallplatten der Welt“, Schalltrichter, Nr. 32, April 2008.
History Department at the University of San Diego, "The Early Gramophone", [notes revised by Steven Schoenherr, 2005].
Puille, Stephan "Emile Berliner in Deutschland, 1889-1890" (Vortrag zur Jahrestagung der IASA-Ländergruppe Deutschland/Deutschschweiz e. V., Potsdam 2003), www.iasa-online.de/files/2003_Berliner.pdf.

 

Some sources and links

Emile Berliner online exhibit on the Library of Congress's American Memory page
Emile Berliner a rich biography from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Istituto Tecnico Toscano, Firenze
Parkins and Gotto commercial list
Universitätsbibliothek der Katholischen Universität Eichstätt (special collections)
The Virtual Gramophone
Tainter lateral-cut electroplated record - this phonogram was made nov 8th 1881

---

[...] It was Bill Golden who asked me one day in 1891, if I would go with him to see a German who had started experimenting with a flat-disc talking machine record and make some trials. We found Emile Berliner in his laboratory, moving up and down in his small studio buzzing on a diaphragm, "Hello, hello!" and in his guttural, broken English, "Tvinkle, tvinkle little star, how I vonder vot you are". I was introduced to the inventor and invited to witness the making of the first gramophone record. Berliner placed a muzzle over Golden’s mouth and connected this up by a rubber hose to a diaphragm. I was at piano, the sounding box of which was also boxed up and connected to the diaphragm by a hose resembling an elephant’s trunk. He asked, "Are you ready?" and upon our answering yes, he began to crank like a barrel organ, and said, "Go." The song finished and Berliner stopped cranking. He took from the machine a bright zinc disc and plunged it into an acid bath for few minutes. Then taking it out of the acid, he washed and cleaned the disc.

Placing this disc on a reproducing machine, also operated by hand like a coffee grinder, he played back the resulting record from the etched groove. To our astonished ears came Billy Golden’s voice. He explained to us how this method was superior to the phonograph. I was spellbound by the beautiful round tone of the flat gramophone disc. Before leaving, I exacted a promise from Berliner that he would let me work for him when his machine was ready for development. [...]

From F.W. Gaisberg, Music on Record, Northumberland Press, UK (1947)