Emil Berliner, born in Hannover (Germany) and an emigrant to the US in 1870, patents on 8 November 1887 the gramophone and the flat lateral-cut recording disc (U.S. patent no. 372,786). Unlike Edison's phonograph (fragile wax cylinders, hard to mass-reproduce), Berliner's system records on wax-coated zinc discs that are transferred by electroplating to metal masters capable of stamping copies in series. Berliner's flat disc — with the needle moving laterally in the groove — is the standard that endured in the recording industry until the digital era: the vinyl LP, the 45 rpm single, and the CD inherit its geometry. Edison receives canonical credit for the phonograph; Berliner, whose system won commercially, remains anonymous outside circles of technology history.