ABSTRACT
The Biophon system consists of two devices, a film projector and a gramophone, coupled together in order to allow the synchronized presentation of sounds recorded on shellac discs and moving images recorded on film stock. The system was first patented by German pioneer Oskar Messter in 1903, and made possible the production and distribution of early sound films in Germany as well as other European countries in the first decade of the 19th century. Messter patented different devices in the following years in order to improve the functioning of the system. Few devices of this system survive today. One Biophon system is displayed at the Deutsches Museum in Munich: it consists of the film projector Panzerkino—which measures around 6.1 ft (185.3 cm) in height, 1.4 ft (43 cm) in width, and 3.2 ft (97 cm) in depth, and the gram-ophone Biophon—which measures 2.6 ft (78 cm) in height, 1.7 ft (52 cm) in width, and 3.1 ft (96 cm) in depth.
