[NJARC] Re: Record speeds

[amagoun]

Harry,

You'll be among the first to know!  If you can't wait and must have the
bigger, longer, uncut dissertation it's titled "Shaping the Sound of
Music: The Evolution of the Phonograph Record, 1877-1950" (U. Maryland,
2000).  It explains how inventors, entrepreneurs, and consumers
sometimes coincide and often conflict to improve the various qualities
of sound records.  It's available, warts, 580 pages, and all, in paper
or other formats from ProQuest, which handles the on-demand publication
of all North American dissertations back to 1869.  I've just looked at
its site, which is focused on the academic market (I've made the case
that they should loosen up for all those non-academics interested in
history and limpet digestive systems, but what do I know?) and the price
is up to $41 for an unbound version you could get fixed up at a copy
shop, and YOW--$78 for softbound.  No wonder my royalties are so small,
but visit http://wwwlib.umi.com/dxweb/neworder if you're interested.

Jim,

No doubt you're curled up with that nice Victor patent book in your lap,
and the significant (i.e. litigated) Berliner patent is 534,543, which
combined lateral recording with the stylus "vibrated and propelled by
the same [groove]. . ."  Again, Edison and Bell and Tainter of Columbia
had experimented earlier with disc records but stuck with cylinders for
their convenience in once-only read-write applications in stenography.
Berliner's conception of a home market resulted in ideas enabling
mass-produced read-often discs from a single master.

As to standard speed, Edison reluctantly adopted discs in 1913 after
going through a variety of speeds on his commercial, 35-50-cent
cylinders.  Courtesy of www.tinfoil.com/trc-do.htm#date-type:

 Brown wax (120-rpm)          1897 to 1898 (varies)
 Brown wax (125-rpm)          Late-1898 to 1900 (varies)
 Brown wax (144-rpm)          1900 to July 1902

Columbia went through a longer evolution:

 Brown wax (120-rpm)          1890 to 1900
 Brown wax (125-rpm)          1899 to 1900 (varies)
 Brown wax (140-rpm)          1900 to mid-1902
 Brown wax (185-rpm)          1901 to 1902
 Brown wax (160-rpm)          Mid-1902 to July 1904

Molded black-wax and Amberol recordings became standard at 160rpm,
apparently for both companies, per www.nipperhead.com/faq.htm.  It's
hard to say that Edison discs had a standard playing speed as his
springwound turntable offered adjustable speed just like Victor and
Columbia.  Columbia tried to establish 80 rpm as its standard for discs,
though you won't find it listed on the records, after Berliner and
Victor oscillated over 10 years through trial, error, and mistakes
between 60 and 90 rpm before getting close to 78, and then continued to
leave it to the listener to adjust as she or he desired:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/AlexandraGrosman.shtml.  Don't you
ever get the urge to dance to "Duke of Earl"
(www.stinalisa.com/Earl.html) at double time?

cheers,
Alex