The American company ‘Columbia Phonograph’ released the gramophone in the 1900s to the 1930s. Aleksey Lysenok donated it to the museum. The gramophone belonged to his family, who lived in the resettlement village of Vilenka, Tomsk region, and then moved to Seversk.

At the end of the 19th century, the production of inexpensive models for regular use started in addition to musical devices made of mahogany, silver or gold. In Siberia, not only wealthy families living in cities, but also people in villages started buying gramophones. The owner recalled,

In those days, songs by Isaak Dunayevsky and romances ‘The Tired Sun’, ‘I’m Infinitely Sorry’, ‘In the Park of Chair’ and many others were popular.

The gramophone consists of a box with a lid, a spring mechanism which makes the disc rotate, and a sound-reproducing device (soundbox) — it converts the mechanical vibrations of the stylus into sound ones. A flaring horn increases the sound volume.

The trademarks of the manufacturing company have been preserved on the sides of the box: inscriptions in English inside a winding golden band. The box itself was made of hardwood, and then tinted. The gramophone horn was made of silvery-white metal. Its upper wide part — the bell — has scalloped edges. A screw thread is applied to the base of the gramophone horn. With its help, the horn is attached to a metal base on the side of the box.

Inside the box, under the wooden bar is a spring mechanism. The gramophone disc is placed on top of the turntable on a special spring mechanism shaft — the spindle. There is a factory-made handle in the round hole on the back.
The German-American inventor Emile Berliner designed the gramophone in 1887. He modified an earlier musical device — the phonograph.