Eldridge Reeves Johnson co-created the Victor Talking Machine Company

Victor Talking Machine Company

The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....

 alongside Emile Berliner

Emile Berliner

Emile Berliner or Emil Berliner was a German-born American inventor. He is best known for developing the disc record gramophone...

, a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 corporation

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

, and built it into the leading American producer of phonograph

Phonograph

The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...

s and phonograph records

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time.

In the 1890s, Johnson owned a small machine shop in Camden, New Jersey

Camden, New Jersey

The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...

, when a customer brought in a Berliner phonograph, which used lateral-cut disk records, but the sound quality was inferior to the phonograph cylinder

Phonograph cylinder

Phonograph cylinders were the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity , these cylinder shaped objects had an audio recording engraved on the outside surface which could be reproduced when the cylinder was...

. Johnson was fascinated by the machine and worked over a period of six years to improve the sound and volume

Loudness

Loudness is the quality of a sound that is primarily a psychological correlate of physical strength . More formally, it is defined as "that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud."Loudness, a subjective measure, is often...

 capacity. In October 1901, he incorporated

Incorporation (business)

Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...

 his company, the Consolidated Talking Machine Company. Later, Johnson and Berliner's Berliner Gramophone

Berliner Gramophone

Berliner Gramophone was an early record label, the first company to produce disc "gramophone records" .-History:...

 Company, which produced disc records merged to form the Victor Talking Machine Company.

He established the Johnson Foundation for Research in Medical Physics at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 in 1929. The foundation, now called the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation, is associated with the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

The Perelman School of Medicine , formerly the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was founded in 1765, making it the oldest American medical school. As part of the University of Pennsylvania, it is located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is widely...

.

Johnson died at the age of 78 on November 14, 1945, at his home in Moorestown Township, New Jersey

Moorestown Township, New Jersey

-Demographics:At the 2000 census, there were 19,017 people, 6,971 households, and 5,270 families residing in the township. The population density was 1,287.3 per square mile . There were 7,211 housing units at an average density of 488.1 per square mile...

 after suffering a stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

 days earlier.

On February 26, 1985, Johnson posthumously received the 1984 Grammy

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 Trustee Award, given to persons who made a significant contribution in the field of recording. This award is on display at the Johnson Victrola Museum located in Dover, Delaware

Dover, Delaware

The city of Dover is the capital and second largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, and the principal city of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County. It is located on the St. Jones River in the Delaware...

. Johnson is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery

West Laurel Hill Cemetery

West Laurel Hill Cemetery is a cemetery located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the site of many notable burials, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1992...

, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

External links

• Time magazine article from December 20, 1926
• The Marvelous Talking machine - Eldridge R. Johnson
• Johnson Victrola Museum, http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/biocbiop/jf/jf.html
• Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation, University of Pennsylvania
• Biography-West Laurel Hill Cemetery web site
• "HOW A MAN WITH AN IDEA MADE MILLIONS IN TWELVE YEARS", New York Times Magazine, August 28, 1910, p9