The desire to produce a machine capable of playing recorded sounds or music began with inventors like Thomas Edison (phonograph), Alexander Graham Bell (graphophone), and Emile Berliner (gramophone). After Berliner’s company joined forces with inventor Eldridge Johnson, the new company was named The Victor Talking Machine Company. The brand name for the company’s machine was quickly patented as the “Victrola.” Soon after, competing brands began to appear. One such brand was Columbia’s “Grafonola.” The name was developed using a combination of the words graphophone and victrola. Like the Victrola, Grafonolas were meant to blend in with the décor of a room and models included large wooden floor units as well as smaller pieces designed to resemble grand pianos.