Wondergram Miniature Record Player with Box

“The world of music in the palm of your hand” was Camp Baird’s Industries Limited's slogan when releasing the Wondergram in 1959. Small enough to fit into the user’s hand, this record-playing device promised to incorporate the quality of a regular gramophone into a battery-operated portable record player that could be taken to the beach or on picnics.

Designed by Sergio Favaro, an Italian national who settled in Shrewsbury, England in 1958 and produced by Hartley Electromotives (later, Camp Baird) the portable record player played all standard-size records at two main speeds. Equipped with a low-consumption 6-volt battery, an amplifier, and weighing only two pounds, the Wondergram worked by placing the record on a small automatic spinning wheel which turned the disc. Though produced in England, the Wondergram found its largest market in North America where it was sold as the Emerson Wondergram.

“The world of music in the palm of your hand” was Camp Baird’s Industries Limited's slogan when releasing the Wondergram in 1959. Small enough to fit into the user’s hand, this record-playing device promised to incorporate the quality of a regular gramophone into a battery-operated portable record player that could be taken to the beach or on picnics.

Designed by Sergio Favaro, an Italian national who settled in Shrewsbury, England in 1958 and produced by Hartley Electromotives (later, Camp Baird) the portable record player played all standard-size records at two main speeds. Equipped with a low-consumption 6-volt battery, an amplifier, and weighing only two pounds, the Wondergram worked by placing the record on a small automatic spinning wheel which turned the disc. Though produced in England, the Wondergram found its largest market in North America where it was sold as the Emerson Wondergram.