Gramophone and Typewriter
1900 In December, William Owen, of the Gramophone Co, gained manufacturing rights from the Lambert Typewriter Company of the USA; the company was renamed the Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd and remained so for a few years. Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd was registered on 10 December. [1]
1900 Eldridge R. Johnson, Gramophone's talking machine manufacturer, filed suit to be permitted to make records himself. He won and used this victory to name the new record company the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901. Contrary to some sources, the Victor Talking Machine Company was never a branch or subsidiary of Gramophone, as Johnson's manufactory was his own company with many mechanical patents that he owned, which patents were valuable in the patent pool agreement with Columbia. Thus, Victor and Columbia began making flat records in America, with UK Gramophone and others continuing to do so outside America, leaving Edison as the only major player in the making of cylinders (Columbia still made a limited number for a few years), and Emile Berliner, the inventor of flat records, out of the business.
1902 Eldridge Johnson of Victor Talking Machine Company acquired US rights to use the dog and gramophone as the Victor trademark, which began appearing on Victor records that year. UK rights to the logo were reserved by Gramophone. Nipper lived from 1884 to 1895 and is buried in England with a celebrated grave marker.
1903 Public issue of shares in the company[2]
1904 At a time when the cylinder record format dominated the market for recordings, the company attempted to challenge this dominance by creating a range of cheap disc records.
1909 Defended a patent against case for its revokation[3]
At some point the name reverted to Gramophone Co