Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-03
Creator of FIat-Disc Phono-
graph Record and Originator
of Microphone.
HELPED CURB INFANT
M0RTALlTIES BY STUDY
Co.operated With Son in Tests
During Efforts to Perfect
Helicopter.

Emile Berllner, famous inventor and
philanthropist, died at his home in the
Wardman Park Hotel shortly before
noon today.
Stricken week ago by apopIexy, Mr.
Berliner, who was in his Seventy-ninth
year, rallied slightly until yesterday
when he lapsed into unconsciousness
When the end came, he was surrounded
by the members Of his immediate family
in the hotel apartment.
Distinguished as the inventor Of the
radio microphone, which made possible
broadcasting, and the fiat disk pnono-
graph record. used In millions Of homes
throughout the world, Mr.. Berliner OF
late years was restless crusader in the
field of child hygiene. He was presi-
dent of the District Chapter OF the
tuberculosis Association.
Experimental with HelicOpters.
During this period he also has found
time to observe with interest the ex-
perimertS Of his son Henry with air.
planes and the helicopter, one model Of
which has been flown successfully.
With Mr. Berliner at the time OF
death were his widow, Mrs. Cora Adler
Berliner, whom he married in 1881, and
their two sons and two daughters. DR..
Edwin Behrend, his physician, was In
attendance. Edgar is the second son.
Mrs. Louise Alice Lubin and Mrs.
Hannah B. Sanders, are the two daugh-
ters. Mrs. Sanders husband, Joseph
Sanders, also was with the family.
Association With Son.
With the telephone transnitter and
ready to the credit Of his inventive
genius, Emile Berliner In his later years
was associated with his son Henry In
an advisory capacity for the develop
ment of the helicopter-an aircraft
capable of rising straight up from the
ground.
The versatility of this German inmi-
grant, who travelled the rough road of
experience in the earlier years of his
life in the United States, was ex-
hibited in the various vocations he fol-
lowed ere fortune rewarded him. He
sold glue, painted backgrounds on en-
salesman for a Milwaukee wholesale
house, at various times between 1870,
when he reached the United States,
until he went to Washington In 1877
to begin experimenting.
During his leisure time he had studied
electricity and acoustics and while a
clerk in Washington store he expert
mented after hours In his room and
evolved the idea of the lose contact
transmitter or microphone, which
placed the telephone on an advanced
commercial basis, some three years after
Bell and Watson had invented the tele-
phone in Boston. Later the microphone
was to become also the soul Of radio
broadcasting.
Invented Gramophone.
In 1887 he achieved the second scien-
tific discovery that placed his name in
the forefront of inventors by giving the
world the gramophone. This talking
machine utilized the disc record, also
his invention, and a horizontal wave
grove, rather than the cylinder up and
down groove. He invented and per-
fected, as well, the present method Of
duplicating disc records.
awarded the John Scott Medal and
Elliott Cresson gold medal by Franklin
Institute, Philadelphia.
It was later that his inventive genius
turned to aeronautics, but before the
Wright brothers conducted their flying
experiments on the sands of North
Carolina, he was at work on the hell
copter. He contended that this type of
aircraft possessed superiority over that
requiring running start to get into the
air, because it would conserve space
and permit of ascent from city square.
This research he turned over to his son,
Henry, about 1919, after the latter had
designed and successfully flown a hell
copter in November of that year.
Mr.. Berliner exhibited his adapta-
bility in yet another sphere by interest
ing himself in 1900 in the cause Of the