A Dictaphone is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print. The name "Dictaphone" is a trademark of a corporation which makes such devices, but has also become a common way to refer to all such devices, especially historic versions that used phonograph cylinders as the recording medium, as was common from the late 19th century until the early-mid 20th century, when vinyl records became the preferred medium. Sometimes when the general term rather than the specific company is referred to, the variation "dictophone" is used.