Take a round (not hexagonal) pencil and wrap clear/cloudy tape around the top near the eraser. Now place a record over the pencil so that the side you wish to play is facing away from the tape. Take a piece of normal (8-1/2" x 11") paper and form it into a horn shape and tape it together this way, and stick a needle up the point of the horn (through the little hole, head first) and secure it with tape. Place the pencil/record combination on a carpeted floor near a wall or piece of furniture. On the wall, stick the horn/needle combination to the wall/furniture so that the needle will drag along the groove in the record at an angle so it is not scraping.
If you are playing a 45 R.P.M. record with a large hole, place a regular record underneath (still on the pencil) and place a spindle adapter on the pencil, and then put the 45 over that.
Now turn the pencil and you should hear the song that the needle is on. It will take some practice to get the right speed, but you should be hearing the song without batteries or AC.
This is the destruct-o-phone ready to play a 45 R.P.M. record. Even though the grooves are close together and therefore recorded at a lower volume, the sound is at a respectable level. When playing Michael Jackson's "Thriller", it is probably loud enough to wake people up. I have another record, Robey's "One Night In Bankok" which has large grooves. It is quite loud, about as loud as a normal stereo.
If you do not have a record player, but have a microphone and a recorder you can stick the microphone down the horn, but not so much that it will cause the record to skip. Here are two samples from the Destruct-O-Phone. See if you can identify the song.
E-mail me about the destruct-o-phone. Use "gramophone" in the subject.