In the groove

Vinyl records can be

1

traced back to the 19th century. In 1857, French scientist Edouard-leon Scott developed the “phonoautograph”, which used a vibrating pen to record sound waves on paper.

In 1878, US inventor

2

Thomas Edison took the concept and turned it into a machine that replayed the sounds it recorded. It used a stylus designed to cut grooves of sound on to cylinders and discs made of tinfoil.

A few years later

3

a third inventor, Emile Berliner, patented the first vinyl record player – the gramophone. It had to be manually operated and worked by playing a rubber disc with small grooves etched into it.

The record as we know

4

it today was born with the LP – long player – in 1948, a 12-inch disc capable of playing 21 minutes each side.

Vinyl was declared

5

dead in the 1990s but has enjoyed a wellpublicised revival as fans praise its higher quality and more authentic sound.

There is a difference in

6

sound between black and coloured or clear vinyl. The latter tends to have more surface noise and hiss as dyes are used to produce the shade rather than the black carbon added to make a standard record.

The world’s largest 7

record collection belongs to Brazilian businessman Zero Freitas, who has more than eight million stored away. Some are rare, some he has several copies of. He doesn’t know why he is so obsessed, once admitting:

“I’ve gone to therapy for 40 years to try to explain this to myself.”

Spillers in Cardiff is

8 reckoned to be the world’s oldest record shop. Established in 1894, it’s still going strong, despite moving locations in the city.

9 The most expensive record sold for £1.5million in 2015. It was the only copy of Wu-tang Clan’s Once Upon A Time in Shaolin and bought by US pharmaceuticals boss Martin Shkreli, who is now in jail for fraud.

He was ordered to give

10

up the record as part of his conviction, and this week Netflix announced it is making a film about his purchase, helmed by Brad Pitt’s production company.

Some of the weirder

11

vinyls include Heady Fwends by The Flaming Lips, who injected their blood into the record, By Your Side by French producer Breakbot, which was pressed on to chocolate, and Getting Your Hair Wet With Pee by band Eohippus, which was infused with their hair and coloured with their urine.

Aliens could be introduced 12 to earthlings via records. There are two copies of the Golden Record aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts, which features musical selections from different times and cultures and spoken messages to show what life is like here.