- Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line -- providing fast, coast-to-coast communications during the U.S. Civil War.
- Emile Berliner invents the flat record player ("gramophone") using acoustic horn and licenses technology to record companies who make "70-rpm" disks
1877 - Emile Berliner invents the first microphone and sells the rights to Bell Telephone
- Edison invents the cylinder "phonograph" used to record and playback sound. Originally thought to be useful as a business machine for dictation (like the dictaphone which would come later.) Other uses: recordings of plays pre-dating
Danish inventor Valdemar Poulson invents magnetic wire sound recording
Louis Glass invents the modern jukebox (coin-operated phonograph) and installs it at the "Palais Royal" saloon in San Francisco where it is an immediate hit.
Popular music becomes a serious business; Music Publishers begin renting office space on 28th street in New York City, near vaudeville theatres in an area that would become known worldwide as "Tin Pan Alley."
An orchestra is used with (silent) motion pictures for the first time in April in London
Shellac gramophone disks developed by Emile Berliner - speeds will vary on discs issued by companies in different countries (80 rpm was used on some British recordings)
- British scientist Joseph John Thompson discovers the electron particle within cathode rays
- Eldredge Johnson perfects first system of mass duplication of pre-recorded flat disks.
- "The Electric Theater" in Los Angeles is opened by Thomas L. Tally: the first Nickelodeon, a multimedia movie palace, that spawned imitators nationwide;
The first double-sided phonograph records are introduced by Columbia. Soon its competitors follow suit; Prior to this time, all records had sound only on one side; the back side was a blank (un-grooved) side.
- Disk recordings overtake cylinders in the popular market. Columbia drops cylinders
- Edison Co. finally introduces a disk player, now that the cylinder market is gone
Western Union introduces the first consumer charge card.
ASCAP formed to collect public performance royalties for Composers, Authors and Publishers; Composer Victor Herbert is its first president.
The first automatic "record changer" turntable is patented for a stack of 78's
Western Union introduces teletypewriters, joining branches and individual companies
- Electrical records replace acoustic discs, via a process developed by Western Electric.
