The wax cylinder got a competitor with the advent of the Gramophone, which was patented by Emile Berliner in 1887. The vibration of the Gramophone 's recording stylus was horizontal, parallel to the recording surface, resulting in a zig - zag groove of constant depth. This is known as lateral recording. Berliner 's original patent showed a lateral recording etched around the surface of a cylinder, but in practice he opted for the disc format. The Gramophones he soon began to market were intended solely for playing prerecorded entertainment discs and could not be used to record. The spiral groove on the flat surface of a disc was relatively easy to replicate: a negative metal electrotype of the original record could be used to stamp out hundreds or thousands of copies before it wore out. Early on, the copies were made of hard rubber, and sometimes of celluloid, but soon a shellac - based compound was adopted.
who invented a method for recording sound on flat discs
Emile Berliner