- A phonograph, later called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910), and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of recorded sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a helical or spiral groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a “record”. To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus (or “needle”) traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it, faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm that produced sound waves coupled to the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener’s ears through stethoscope-type earphones.
- Abraham Lincoln (allthetropes.org)
That guy who won the American Civil War, proclaimed the slaves free, delivered the Gettysburg Address and was shot dead at the theatre. He’s also known for wearing a top hat and being very tall (the tallest president, in fact, at six feet four inches), and when he for a brief time took direct control of the Union army, showed himself to be a talented military strategist as well. A genial and charming speaker, Lincoln had an uncanny ability to explain complex issues in layman’s terms, and his speeches are among the most famous in American history. Considered an untested and possibly radical figure, he is famous for Growing the Beard in office. In many ways he’s the only post-Founding Fathers/ pre-Teddy Roosevelt President who’s thought of at all. He is almost universally considered to be one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Presidents in American history.