In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, we continue to recognize the economic, cultural, political, and social contributions of notable immigrants and refugees who’ve helped shape America’s vibrant tapestry. Today, we highlight German American inventor and innovator, Emile Berliner.
Emile Berliner was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1851, one of 13 siblings. Following family tradition, he initially completed an apprenticeship to join his family’s merchant business. However, his intrinsic passion was for inventing. Working as an accountant, Berliner immigrated to the U.S. in 1870, working at a family friend’s dry goods shop in Washington, D.C. Soon, he moved to New York, working days on a part-time paper route and as a bottle cleaner, while he focused on studying physics at Cooper Union Institute at night.
Berliner’s penchant for creativity and invention led to two seminal innovations. In 1977, one year after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Berliner experimented with a transmitter by using a loose metal contact, leading to the discovery that the device could act as an improved telephone receiver. The invention so impressed the burgeoning Bell Telephone Company that they bought its rights and hired Berliner, where he worked over the next seven years.
A decade later, he improved the popular phonograph, limiting gravitational distortions by deploying a stylus horizontally in lieu of Thomas Edison’s original vertical design – the swap also allowed for cheap and mass-produced record needles. Berliner’s improved and renamed gramophone was later acquired by RCA, which repurposed Berliner’s logo as their own.
Berliner became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1877.
His other inventions also include a lightweight internal combustion motor, which is considered an early prototype that led to aircraft. He also designed a helicopter that flew as early as 1919. In 1925, he invented an acoustic tile for use in concert halls.
Berliner was an advocate for improved public health and women’s equality. In 1911, he established the Esther Berliner Fellowship in honor of his late mother to give qualified women career opportunities in scientific research.
Although Emile Berliner passed in 1929, he was inducted posthumously into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994.
Others we are celebrating in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month:
2025
Ralph Henry Baer, German American inventor and engineer
Emma Goldman, Russian American, pioneer for women’s rights
