The Horse-Drawn Record Player

Today marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of Thomas Sadler, the inventor of the world's first horse-drawn record player.

Developed as a labour-saving alternative to the wind-up gramophone, the device never really caught on for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the discs themselves were unwieldy, being some ten feet in diameter.

The horse that was yoked to the turntable had to be trained to run at two precise speeds - a gentle canter for albums and a lively trot for singles.

Finally, the amplification system left much to be desired as the output was not beefy enough to drown out the sounds of the horse's hooves.

Nevertheless, although the system was a failure, it was at least environmentally friendly. And it is for this reason that the idea is about to be resurrected by Sony, in the form of an MP3 player driven by rabbits.