TALKING WAX

OR
THE STORY
OF THE PHONOGRAPH
SIMPLY TOLD FOR GENERAL READERS
BY
LEROY HUGHBANKS
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF SERVICES
FOR THE BLIND, STATE DEPARTMENT OF
SOCIAL WELFARE, TOPEKA, KANSAS

Author of
YOU CAN MAKE RECORDS
and
HOME RECORDING MADE EASY

THE HOBSON BOOK PRESS

52 VANDERBILT AVE.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
1945
 Copyright 1945
By
LEROY HUGHBANKS

All Rights Reserved

Manufactured by the Hobson Book Press, Cynthiana, Ky., U.S.A.

THIS LITTLE WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED TO MRS. THELMA TIMMIS, WHO
SO PAINSTAKINGLY TRANSCRIBED MANY
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS INTO EMBOSSED
TYPE FOR THE USE AND CONVENIENCE OF
THE AUTHOR.
 FOREWARD

The aim of the author, in writing and compiling this volume, has been twofold: first, to give the
reader a clear, concise and accurate history of the phonograph and the development and expansion of
the industry into one of the brilliant achievements in the commercial life of the American nation; and,
secondly, to supply this information in one medium-sized volume, in order that the available facts can
be readily accessible to any and all who may desire to use this book, either as a text or reference work,
in the study of the art and science of the phonograph, or as a help in sales work or other allied fields in
connection with service lectures and the training of personnel.

I avail myself of this opportunity to express my grateful appreciation to the many who, for over
a period of more than fourteen years, contributed in the preparation of this work. Some of these have
forever passed from life's active drama.

The following, however, have rendered an especial service which must in all fairness be
acknowledged: Victor Division, RCA Manufacturing Company, especially the members of the staff of
the Educational Department; Mr. H. A. Frederick and Mr. H. C. Harrison, both members of the staff of
the Bell Telephone Laboratories, New York City; President Edward Wallerstein of the Columbia
Recording Corporation, New York City; Mr. H. C. Kruse and Mr. Sellman Schultz of Decca Records,
Incorporated, New York and Chicago; Mr. J. A. Kleber and Mr. C. G. Ritter of the Talking Book
Studios of the American Foundation for the Blind, New York City; Mr. Bert Clark of the Clark
Phonograph Record Company, Newark, New Jersey; Mr. Jerry Lawrence of Station WOR, New York;
Mr Courtney Pitt of the Philco Corporation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and also Dr. F. Fraser Bond,
New York City, for his constructive criticism as to form and arrangement of material.

This dissertation is sent force with an ardent desire that it will stimulate many to a greater
understanding and enjoyment of the phonograph, and give them deeper knowledge and understanding
of its possible future and use.

Leroy Hughbanks

Topeka, Kansas
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

FORWARD
CHAPTER I
Leon Scott Invents the First Sound Recorder
CHAPTER II
Edison Invents the First Phonograph
CHAPTER III
Graphophones, Phonographs and Gramophones
CHAPTER IV
Emile Berliner, Inventor of the Gramophone
CHAPTER V
Eldridge R. Johnson and the Victor Talking Machine Company
CHAPTER VI
Earliest Days of the Phonograph
CHAPTER VII
History of the Columbia Phonograph Company
CHAPTER VIII
History of the Edison Phonograph
CHAPTER IX
Personal Reminiscences
CHAPTER X
The Electrical Age of the Phonograph
CHAPTER XI
The Story of the Phonograph Record
CHAPTER XII
Instantaneous Recording
CHAPTER XIII
The Talking Book Machine
CHAPTER XIV
Depression and Reorganization
CHAPTER XV
Miscellany
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PHONOGRAPH
 Chapter One

LEON SCOTT INVENTS

THE FIRST SOUND RECORDER, 1857

Centuries ago the cave man sat down to the stone wall of his cave and with a sharp instrument
inscribed his message on the surface of that unyielding substance. In so doing, he was providing
himself with the first record of human thought and action known to present day science.

Expression of thought and its recording in tangible and permanent form has been the basis
throughout the centuries of man's stability and civilization's improvement. No matter what type of
civilization is examined, it will be found that this expression of thought in permanent form the written
or printed word is the key to the scope and cultural attainments of the race.

Today the interchange of written and printed matter is the very life stream of our existence.
Newspapers, periodicals and books mirror the trends and record for posterity the emotions and
reactions, the life and the culture of our present advanced civilization.
--From THE STORY OF THE DICTAPHONE

We are here to trace the history of the development of sound records, the methods used for their
recording and reproduction. Here and there throughout the history of science are to be found
references to various attempts to record and reproduce sound by mechanical means. Authentic records
show, however, that it was not until 1857 that the first sound recorder was invented. In that year Leon
Scott, a French scientist invented the phonautograph, which traced a laterally cut undulation on
heavy paper coated with lamp black. Scott was pretty much of a dreamer and his idea looked better on
paper than in actual use, but, nevertheless, the principle of recording sound vibrations on a record was
amply justified in the years to follow.

The instrument was crude and cumbersome, but it played an important role in the years to come
in the study of the vibration of sound waves by visual means.

The phonautograph consisted of a heavy metal cylinder with thick paper wrapped around it,
which had been coated uniformly with a thin layer of lamp black over a sooty flame. The cylinder was
moved forward by means of a screw thread running through the axis. The motive power was furnished
by means of a hand crank. At right angles to the cylinder was placed a large-sized horn, barrel shaped
and made of plaster. Through the orifice of this horn was inserted a small brass tube with an aperture
of approximately four inches in diameter, and over this was placed a flexible diaphragm, drumlike. To
the diaphragm, a flexible bristle or stylus was attached so that it would barely touch the smoked surface
of the paper cylinder.

When music was played or speech uttered into the mouth of the horn, the diaphragm was caused
to vibrate by action of the air waves on it and the bristle traced, as it were, the picture of the sound
vibrations in the lamp black, which had been set up by the performer playing or speaking into the horn.
In other words, a laterally cut undulating line appeared whenever sound was directed into the mouth of
the horn, and the cylinder was turned by means of a hand crank. Of course, the progressive motion,
made possible by the lead screw in the cylinder's axis, moved the paper slowly forward under the stylus
point until the zigzag line in the spiral form reached from one end of the paper cylinder to the other.

From Leon Scott, we pass now to the early experiments of a young American telegraph operator
stationed at Indianapolis, Indiana. The name of Thomas A. Edison is know to every wide-awake boy in
the nation.

It has oft been said that necessity is the mother of invention. At any rate this seems to be borne
out in the case of Mr. Edison's first invention. When Tom Edison was quite young, he was employed
as a telegraph operator in Indianapolis, Indiana. He worked during the day but this did not afford him
the opportunity he wished, to become a rapid operator. The newspapers sent their copy over the wires
at night. Edison was determined to become an expert telegrapher, so he induced another boy in the
office to work with him at night in copying press. One would receive for ten minutes and the other
would take down, and then they would exchange places. They kept in their memory what they were
unable to copy down. All this worked fairly well until a new operator was put on at Cincinnati. This
operator was rapid but Edison refused to give up without a struggle. He knew he could not keep up
with this operator, so he set about to devise ways and means of meeting the problem. In meeting this
problem, young Tom demonstrated two of his most marked characteristics: first, his ability in
overcoming obstacles; and secondly, his enthusiastic resourcefulness. Both of these traits can be traced
throughout his entire life.

He had a brand-new idea and he set about to test it. He secured two old Morse registers and
rigged up a kind of tape machine. With one instrument he took the telegraph clicks from the wire as
fast as they were sent. These clicks were translated on the tape into marks. Edison amazed everyone,
for even the company officials could not understand how these two young men, inexperienced as they
were, could keep up with the most efficient dispatcher in the country. This press copy was sent at
approximately forty words per minute. Edison would then take this tape on which the forty word clicks
had been changed into markings, and run it through another instrument at a slower rate of speed and
these marks were translated back into telegraph clicks, of something like twenty-five words per minute.
Of course all this was kept secret and the instrument (automatic telegraph recorder) was kept hidden in
the daytime. Dots and dashes from one instrument being printed in indentations on a strip of paper, and
then turned back back into dots and dashes by reversing the process, was an entirely new idea.

It was the night of a presidential election. The boys lagged two hours behind in their copy. The
newspapers were furious and an investigation was made. At last the secret of the phenomenal success
of these two boys was revealed and, of course, the automatic telegraph recorder had to be abandoned.
But Edison kept on experimenting with the instrument and all civilization was to benefit from a young
man's ambition, a young man's ingenuity, his clever trick and his persistence.

Edison kept his instrument, however, which converted telegraph clicks into printed marks and
then changed them into sound. He steadily improved his instrument until in 1877 it was pretty well
perfected. By this time it consisted of an electromagnet to which was connected an embossing point
and, when he hooked up this machine to a telegraph circuit, the point made indentations on discs of
paper covered with paraffin placed on a revolving turntable. These paper discs revolved at will to any
desired rate of speed. One day when Edison was experimenting with the instrument, he found that as
the disc was rotated at a certain speed, it gave out a musical note. At this time he was working on the
telephone of Alexander Graham Bell, seeking to improve the instrument of his fellow inventor. His
mind was filled with theories relating to sound vibrations and transmission of sound by drumlike
membranes or diaphragms.

On hearing this musical note emitted from his instrument, an idea struck him that these
vibrations of the air could be captured and preserved. In other words, that they could be recorded and
reproduced at will, not only musical tones but sounds of all kinds.
 This crude precursor of the phonograph involved two principles which are in use today
throughout most of the industry: first, the application of the electromagnetic pick-up in the modern
electric disc recording instrument; and, secondly, the use of a revolving turntable on which to place the
records to be played.

Edison hastily rigged up an improvised instrument and ran a strip of paper through it, which had
been coated with paraffin. Whilst the paper was passing through the instrument, Edison shouted
Whoo-oo-oo. He then ran the paper back through the apparatus and breathlessly listened. Faintly
but unmistakably he heard his own voice.

This feeble sound was sufficient and Edison made the following entry in his laboratory note
book, on July 18, 1877:

Just tried experiment with diaphragm having an embossing point and held against paraffin
paper moved rapidly. These speaking vibrations are indented nicely and there is no doubt that I shall
be able to store up and reproduce automatically at any future time the human voice perfectly.
 Chapter Two

THOMAS ALVA EDISON INVENTS

THE FIRST PHONOGRAPH

If one had never heard a phonograph, it would seem as though it would be impossible to take
some pieces of metal and make a machine that would repeat speech, singing or instrumental music just
like life.

So, before the autumn of 1877, when Edison invented the phonograph, the world thought such
a thing was entirely out of the question. Indeed, Edison's own men in his work shop, who had seen him
do some wonderful things, thought the idea was absurd when he told them that he was making a
machine to reproduce human speech.
--BOYS' LIFE OF EDISON by Meadowcroft

Let us now go back to the summer and autumn of 1877 and the trace the epoch making events
which led to the construction of the first phonograph.

During the summer of 1877, when America's attention was still riveted on the speaking
telephone, and on all and sundry connected with that miracle, Edward H. Johnson, who was associated
with Thomas A. Edison, embarked upon a lecture tour devoted to the public presentation of past and
prospective achievements of technical science, especially electromagnetism. A considerable portion of
Mr. Johnson's lecture consisted of a description of a device which Edison had worked out. By means
of it, the inventor thought it would be possible to send a mechanically registered voice message to any
of the few Bell Telephone stations then in operation, and thence have it transmitted automatically over
wires. This process would have been the equivalent of sending the usual written message by telegram.

Edison's idea was to mount a diaphragm and stylus, or needle, against a moving strip of paper,
entone the message to the diaphragm, and let the stylus indent the moving strip with the characters of
speech appearing as a continuous groove containing these up-and-down indentations. The strip was to
be sent to a telephone station and passed over a transmitter, on the diaphragm of which was another
stylus. This stylus followed the voice indentations and thereby caused voice undulations in the current,
as if someone had spoken to the transmitter directly. Thus the message could be sent by a sort of
automatic telephone repeater.

According to the testimony of Edward H. Johnson, contained in an address published in the

ELECTRICAL WORLD, New York, February 1890, the graphic term talking machine was not the
invention of Mr. Edison, but of a clever headline writer on a Buffalo newspaper.

In the course of one of my lectures, or improvised talks, Mr. Johnson narrated, it occurred to
me that it would be a good idea to tell my audience about Edison's telephone repeater, at Buffalo,
which I did. My audience seemed to have a much clearer appreciation of the value of the invention
than we had ourselves. They gave me such a cheer as I have seldom heard. I did not comprehend the
importance of the device at the time; but the next morning, the Buffalo papers announced in glaring
headlines:

'A great discovery! A talking machine by Professor Edison. Mr. Edison's wonderful instrument
will produce articulate speech with all the perfection of the human voice.'
 I realized for the first time that Edison had, as a matter of fact, invented a 'talking machine.'
The immediate importance of it to me was that this created a sensation, and I had very large audiences
in all my entertainments thereafter. Realizing that and having had sufficient experience by this time to
profit by such things, I made a special point of this feature in my next entertainment, which was at
Rochester, and had a crowded houseone that did my heart good, and my pocketbook too. That
satisfied me that I had better go home and assist in perfecting the instrument.

I knew, from my own experience in the matter, that it was a comparatively simple thing to do.
So I canceled thirteen engagements and went back home with those newspaper clippings. I went
straight down to the laboratory, which was then at Newark, and I said, 'Mr. Edison, look here. See the
trouble you have got me into.' He read the things over and said, 'That is so. They are right. This is
what it isa talking machine.' I said, 'Can you make it?' He said, 'Of course. Have you got any
money?' I said, 'Yes, I have a little,' and I had a little. He said, 'Go to New York and get me three feet
of stub steel an inch and a half in diameter and a piece of brass pipe four inches in diameter and six or
eight inches long, and we will make it.'

This happened in the fall of 1877. It is, however, a matter of record that Charles Croys, a
Frenchman, as early as April 30 of that year, actually deposited with the Academy of Sciences in Paris
a sealed envelope containing a document in which Croys described a fundamental idea for reproducing
speech from a record of the voice, previously made on a moving surface. The contents were described
as a process of recording and reproducing audible phenomena. It was not until December 3, 1877,
that the Croys paper was divulged in an open discussion of the Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile
Edison appeared with the phonograph.

The world's first phonograph was known as Edison's tinfoil cylinder machine that talked back.
Charles Batchelor, one of Edison's workmen, did not think the idea was sound and bet Edison a box of
cigars that the thing would not work. Edison kept on revolving the idea in his mind, however, in spite
of skepticism. Ultimately, he determined to put his ideas to a practical test. On August 12, 1877, he
made a rough drawing and wrote on it, Kreusi, make this. He handed this sketch to one of his
workmen, the late John Kreusi, saying, Here's an eighteen dollar job for you. Kreusi, who was
accustomed to this sort of procedure, looked at the drawing and said, What are you going to do with
this? To which Edison replied that it was intended to be a machine that would record and reproduce
speech. Kreusi said, You're crazy this time. But he went to work and made the model from the
drawing and in a few days brought it to Edison and stood by with a grin on his face. With much
deliberation, Edison fixed a sheet of tinfoil around the cylinder, adjusted the metal point and through
the funnel shouted the words, Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow, etc. He then
adjusted the reproducing diaphragm and, on turning the cylinder again, the words came back, a little
squeaky but quite plain. Edison was astounded, for he had not expected such perfect results upon the
first trial, from the first model. Kreusi turned pale and said, Mein Gott in Himmel! Thus the
phonograph came into existenceand Batchelor lost his bet.

Let us recall that the phonautograph of Leon Scott was only a recorder. It merely wrote the
sounds on the smoked paper. Edison's phonograph, however, was also a reproducer. The instrument
talked. It first acted as an ear receiving the voice vibrations, the steel pen indenting them on the tinfoil,
then the point, retracing those indentations in an up-and-down motion, reproduced the sounds that had
been recorded previously. The method of recording used in the later Edison phonographs was known
as the hill and dale method, differentiating it from the system developed by Emile Berliner later on,
known as lateral cut, which will be described in a future chapter. As the steel pen or stylus traveled
over these indentations on the foil or wax, the diaphragm was vibrated, just as a telephone diaphragm
was set in motion by electrical current caused by one speaking in another telephone.

These early phonographs were, however, far from satisfactory. They were little more than
scientific toys and had many drawbacks. They were cumbersome and the sounds were tinny and very
unmusical. The tinfoil records were fragile and it was very difficult to remove them from a cylinder
without damage. So it followed that each foil record had to have its own cylinder, screw and crank. It
is readily maintained also that a uniform speed cannot be maintained by means of a crank. One of the
musts in good reproduction and recording is a steady smooth speed.

After a few months of experimenting, Mr. Edison laid the instrument aside, as he was extremely
busy developing his incandescent electric lamp. In an article appearing in the NORTH AMERICAN
REVIEW for June, 1878, one is amazed at the prophetic accuracy with which Mr. Edison pointed out
the possibilities of the phonograph.

The following, for example, are some of the many uses which Mr. Edison had in mind when he
applied for his patent: (1) Letter writing and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer;
(2) phonograph books, which will speak to blind people without an effort on their part; (3) the teaching
of elocution; (4) reproduction of music; (5) the family record -- a registry of sayings, reminiscences,
etc., by members of a family in their own voices, and of the last words of dying persons; (6) music
boxes and toys; (7) clocks that should announce in articulate speech the time for going home, going to
meals, etc.; (8) the preservation of languages by the exact reproduction of the manner of pronouncing;
(9) additional purposes, such as preserving the explanations by a teacher so that the pupil can refer to
them at any moment, and spelling and other lessons placed upon the machine for convenience in
committing to memory; and (10) connection with the telephone so as to make the invention an
auxiliary in the transmission of permanent and invaluable records, instead of being the recipient of
momentary and fleeting communications.

The Reverend Horatio N. Powers, after hearing for the first time one of these crude
phonographs, wrote this salutation:

I seize the palpitating air. I hoard

music and speech. All lips that
speak are mine.
I speak; and the inviolate word
authenticates its origin and
sign!
I am a tomb, a paradise, a throne, an
angel, prophet, slave, immortal
friend!
My living records in their native tone
convict the knave and
disputations end.
In me are souls embalmed. I am an
ear, flawless as truth, and
truth's own tongue am I.
I am a resurrection, and men hear the
quick and dead converse as I
reply.
 Chapter Three

GRAPHOPHONES, PHONOGRAPHS AND

GRAMOPHONES

Mr. Edison's early tin foil cylinder phonograph was exhibited all over the world. The
reproduction it made was little better than a parody of the voice. Every indentation made by the voice
was changed by the wave and the indentation following it, for the reason that the tinfoil readily yielded
to direct of adjoining pressure. Of course, the inevitable result was a general distortion of the record.
However, as a scientific and ingenious curiosity, the original tin foil phonograph ranked high, even
though after a few years it seemed to be forgotten by the public.

After Mr. Edison's discovery of the tin foil cylinder phonograph, the next real step in the talking
machine art was the result of the Volta Laboratory work of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, Sumner
Tainter and Chichester A. Bell, resulting in the first successful sound records in wax. These men
developed, during the early '80's, a process of recording on a wax cylinder record, the grooves being
cut spirally. The sound was recorded by means of elevations and depressions in the bottom of the
record groove. This type of record was known as the hill and dale record and was employed in a
reproducing machine developed by the same parties, which became the early graphophone of the
American Graphophone Company.

Contemporaneously, Thomas A. Edison, working independently, developed a recording

machine for making cylinder hill and dale records in wax, also a machine for reproducing from such
records; this machine being later known as the phonograph.

In both of these machines, that is, the graphophone and the phonograph, it is necessary to use a
special feed screw mechanism for moving the sound box and cutting indentations in the wax. As the
record was made of wax, the reproduction therefrom, while fairly good in quality and articulation, was
very insufficient as far as volume was concerned. It was therefore necessary to provide ear tubes for
the listener. These machines were used as slot machines in amusement halls and the like, being first
employed for this purpose at the Chicago World Exposition in 1893. They were also used as dictating
machines for office use, being the forerunner of the modern dictating machine.

In the spring of 1887, the Bell and Tainter instrument, which they had called graphophone,
was first exhibited. This instrument was the first really practical apparatus of the phonograph type and
excited the animated admiration of crowds in Washington and other places where it was demonstrated.
The American Graphophone Company was organized by Philadelphia capitalists to develop the
machine. The company established a factory and embarked commercially upon the production of
talking machines and of wax-covered paper cylinder records.

In Mr. Berliner's Franklin Institute address on the gramophone, in June, 1888, the following
paragraph appeared:

Soon after the graphophone became generally known, Mr. Edison took again to experimenting
with the phonograph, and settled upon a cylinder of wax and the graving-out process, thus confirming
the correctness of the Bell-Tainter conclusions. The new Edison phonograph and the graphophone
appear to be the same apparatur, differing only in form and motive power.

Sometime about the year 1887, Emile Berliner developed a disc record with a laterally
undulating groove which would not only vibrate the stylus of the reproducing machine to reproduce the
sounds recorded, but would also pilot or feed the sound box and horn across the record, through the
engagement of the stylus with the spiral groove and without the necessity of a special feed screw
mechanism for the purpose, as required in the phonograph and early graphophone.

In making this record, the recording stylus was vibrated laterally, as opposed to vertically, as in
the hill and dale record. The Berliner recording process included the coating of a zinc plate with a
very fine layer or film of acid resisting material. The plated was then subjected to an acid bath, the acid
eating out a groove in the zinc of sufficient depth to pilot and to vibrate the stylus of the reproducing
machine. This zinc plate was used as a master record, from which, by suitable processes, duplicates,
which we know as commercial records, were made in hard material (ebonite) having similar laterally
undulating grooves; which caused the stylus and diaphragm of the reproducing machine to vibrate and
reproduce the sound. The reproducing machine was called the gramophone. The reproduction from
these hard records was quite loud. However, as the etching process left the walls of the groove quite
rough, considerable extraneous noise or scratch was added in reproducing, which detracted materially
from the enjoyment of the listener.

Of all inventions that enter the home, the talking machine is perhaps the most fascinating and
mysterious. Despite continued familiarity, there is still something almost uncanny in the reproduction
of a characteristic human voice or instrumental tone or technique through the medium of the seemingly
simple record disc, needle and the other mechanical components of the instrument. Of all inventions
too, its literature is probably the most inadequate.

Someone told me many years ago of a man who cut the head of a drum to see what made the
noise. No doubt there are many persons, both old and young, who have wondered about the same thing
in regard to the phonograph. If a little stone in thrown in the water, the disturbance to the pond is slight
and the waves are quite small. But if a large rock is thrown into the pond, the waves have a much
greater amplitude. That is to say, they rise much higher and the displacement of water is much greater.
Now let us substitute a musical instrument for the stone or rock and the air for the pond or lake of
water. If, for instance, we strike one of the high or treble notes on the piano, the waves or vibrations
set up in the air will be slight, or the little impulses which enter the ear. These strike the drum where
certain nerves, known as auditory nerves, impart the sensation given off by the piano string to the brain.
A note struck in the bass section of the piano gives off much larger waves or vibrations, which we
might say corresponds to our large rock in the former experiment. Many fine books have been written
on the physics of sound, and, therefore, reference may be made to them for further study of such
matters. You may ask, what does all of this have to do with the sound of the phonograph? We may
state in passing, if the reader has followed us thus far, that he will begin to have some intimation as to
the explanation of what makes a phonograph play.

We learned that Leon Scott, in 1857, proved with his crude instrument that words spoken into a
funnel or horn, having a diaphragm fastened at one end to which a stylus was attached, would make
wavy lines on soot-covered paper wrapped around a revolving cylinder. The wavy lines constituted
sound pictures.

Emile Berliner answers the question of what makes a talking machine talk, clearly and tersely:

Fundamentally it is this, he says. Sound thrown against the diaphragm makes it vibrate. If a
needle is attached to the center, and made to touch a moving surface, for instance, semi-hard wax, the
pointing of the needle will trace or cut sound vibrations into the wax. If now the diaphragm and needle
are made to retrace the record, the vibratory tracings previously made will cause the diaphragm to re-
vibrate and thereby reproduce the original sound.

Instead of the words or music being made in wavy lines on paper, as was the case in the Scott
phonautograph, they are, in the recording phonograph, engraved in soft, especially prepared wax.
Actually the sound waves are indented in the wax.

The first wax used for phonograph records consisted of a mixture of paraffin and beeswax. It
was soon found, however, that in order to meet the needs of the art of record manufacturers, further
developments must be made. Edison utilized wax for record cylinders up until about the close of the
first decade of the century, when celluloid was found to be better for commercial cylinders.

Let us now go back to the year 1886, to survey briefly the development of the wax used by
record manufacturers. In 1886, Tainter and Bell developed a record which consisted of a cardboard
cylinder covered with a thin mixture of stearin soap and zinc and iron oxides.

The formula employed by Thomas A. Edison for his first cylinder record was as follows:
Burgundy 50%, Frankincense 25%, Colophony 9%, Beeswax 8%, Olive oil 4%, and Water 4%, heated
to 110 degrees centigrade until the water had evaporated. The wax compound was then placed in
molds and allowed to cool slowly.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a formula somewhat as follows had been worked out:
Lead oxide 16%, Olive oil 32%, Water 20%, Colophony 25%, and Hard soap 7%. The first three
substances, namely, lead oxide, olive oil, and water, are heated together until all water is distilled off.
Other ingredients are slowly added, and the whole heated until a sample drop cooled on a glass surface,
gave a mass of the required consistency. Zinc oxide and stearin were also widely used in the record
industry at the beginning of the century.

In the latter '80's, Emile Berliner, another of Alexander Graham Bell's associates was
experimenting with records of a different type, the disc record as we know it today. The formula for
his first disc was as follows:

A record base of glass or zinc was coated with beeswax dissolved in benzene. When the disc
was immersed in a dilute solution of hydrochloric acid, and when a suitable depth had been reached,
the disc was washed in water and the wax removed.

Later on in the recording art, wax masters were used. The formulas were made up of such
substances as stearate acid, hard paraffin, resin, beeswax, aluminum oleate, synthetic waxes, shellac
wax, carnauba, montan, aluminum stearate and vaseline. Some of the lesser used waxes were
Candelilla wax, Cape Berry wax, Cochin China wax, Chinese wax or insect wax.

The following formula is a typical example used for a wax blank: Carnauba 36%, Beeswax
12%, Aluminum oleate 27%, Sodium stearate 25%. All the ingredients are melted together in the order
given and maintained at 120 degrees centigrade for half an hour, with constant stirring.

The size and nature of the pan in which these operations are carried out obviously varies
according to the size of the batches which are being made. An enamelled iron pan, with a mechanically
operated stirrer and electrical heating controlled by a thermostat, gives the best results. Gas is often
used under an open pan with, or even without, an oil jacket, and batches up to two hundred pounds in
weight are manufactured in this manner.

It can be readily seen that the wax now used for disc masters is really a compound, consisting of
beeswax, stearate lead, resin, montan, and other substances, depending on the formula followed by the
manufacturer. These formulae are carefully guarded and but few patents have been issued, as the
manufacturer feels, in most cases, that more secrecy can be maintained in this way.

This field is highly specialized and the number of companies which engage in wax production is
limited. The wax used for record work must be even in texture and structureless. It must not be too
hard nor too soft and it must be able to receive a mirror-like polish. As it is shipped everywhere in the
world, it follows that it must be able to withstand the heat of the tropics and the frigid low temperatures
of the Arctic. These waxes, however, are fragile and should be kept at an even and normal temperature
for best results. Much more could be written on the subject. By reference to the bibliography, the
student who desires can pursue the subject further. I might add that the twelve inch wax disc weighs
approximately eight pounds and the ten inch about five pounds. These range in thickness to from one
and one-fourth to one and three-fourths inches and sell at approximately seventy-five cents per pound.
In many recording studios, wax blanks have now (1943) been almost entirely replaced with a fine grade
of acetate instantaneous discs, which will be more fully discussed in a later chapter.
 Chapter Four

EMILE BERLINER, INVENTOR

OF THE GRAMOPHONE, 1887

Before discussing the history of the three major phonograph companies, we are now to discuss
the contributions and achievements of two of the most illustrious names in the art and science of sound
reproduction and recording: Emile Berliner, inventor of the microphone, the gramophone and the
lateral cut disc record; and Eldridge R. Johnson, founder of the Victor Talking Machine Company
and the man who put the phonograph industry on a commercial footing.

Emile Berliner came to this country from Hanover, Germany, and worked as a draper's clerk.
His spare time was spent in the study of acoustics and physics. Many men and many minds have
contributed and participated in the erection of the talking machine industry. But Berliner's invention of
the lateral cut disc is the chief corner stone on which has been reared the vast industry of today. It is
on this discovery that rests the phonograph and record production the world over.

The word gramophone was derived by Mr. Berliner from gramma, a letter, and phone, a sound.
According to Noah Webster, IMPERIAL DICTIONARY, page 798:

A device invented by Emile Berliner to record, retain and reproduce sounds. It differs from a
phonograph in having a circular disk upon which tracings are made by a recording stylus and from
which sounds are reproduced by another kind of stylus attached to the diaphragm of any one of various
types of reproducers.

On May 16, 1888, Berliner gave the first exposition of his gramophone to the Franklin Institute
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A few months previously he had been granted a patent for the
invention. He utilized for this demonstration a hand-driven machine and a half dozen
phonautograms, the name for records in those primitive days. The program consisted of the
following selections:

1. Baritone Solos: Yankee Doodle; Baby Mine; Nancy Lee

2. Cornet Solo
3. Baritone Solo: Tar's Farewell
4. Soprano Solo: Home Sweet Home; Annie Laurie
5. Tenor Solo: A Wandering Minstrel I
6. Recitation: The Declaration of Independence

After Mr. Berliner's work with the telephone, it was perfectly natural that the idea of devising
something that would provide an accurate record of human speech seemed to him like a natural sequel
to the art of telephony. He determined, therefore, to devote his entire time to inventing a talking
machine on original lines. He rigged up a laboratory in a front room of the second floor of his house,
which was located on Columbia Road, in Washington D.C. This room was destined to be the cradle of
the gramophonethe term which he himself coined and which was the description used in the
application for a patent issued November 12, 1887. In those days, he put in much time studying the old
Leon Scott phonautograph, in the National Museum. He analyzed its principles very thoroughly, and
found that its soundness of theory was quite apparent. At the time Mr. Berliner felt that his
experiments could be tested for practical results, he stated as follows:
 The tinfoil phonograph of Edison had been known for ten years and was a scientific curiosity
only, though of historic value. The wax cylinder phonograph or gramophone of Chichester Bell and
Sumner Tainter had been invented, and its aim, as produced by its promoter, was to become a
dictagraph for private and business correspondence. Both machines represented a system of sound
recording in which sound waves were either vertically indented, as in the Edison phonograph, or
vertically engraved into a wax cylinder, as in the Bell-Tainter graphophone. In reproducing these
records, a feed screw was provided which turned either the cylinder past the needle or the reproducing
sound box past the cylinder.

Berliner's gramophone changed all this. Its record was made horizontally and parallel with the
record surface. By itself it formed the screw or spiral which propelled the reproducing sound-box, so
that while the needle was vibrated, it was at the the same time pushed forward by the record groove.
As the sound-box was mounted in such a manner that it was free to follow this propelling movement, it
made the reproducer adjust itself automatically to the record. The horizontal record of the gramophone
was more capable of recording sound in its entirety. In the vertical record of the phonograph-
graphophone, there was a certain distortion which became more pronounced the deeper the sound
waves indented or engraved the record substance.

Berliner's idea of constructing a matrix, enabling records to be pressed in large quantities for
sale, was entirely novel, says Alfred Clark, the American Managing Director of the Gramophone
Company, Ltd., of Middlesex, England. It is the basis of the great gramophone industry throughout
the world today. Without it the talking machine business would have remained in a dwarf state. To
Emile Berliner's conception is wholly due the fact that literally millions of records of a dance number
or a great instrumental or vocal masterpiece, by orchestra, band or soloist, are now struck off from the
one original.

The Bell and Tainter patents for the graphophone covered every form of record cut in wax.
Berliner, therefore, decided to go back to the original recording idea of the Scott phonautograph of
1857 and from that to produce a record groove by the process of photo-engraving.

What Berliner was about to doin his own graphic languagewas to etch the human voice.
Michaelangelo, with brush and chisel, immortalized the human form, but, despite God-given talent, left
itas all modelers in marble and oil must do--mute, inglorious. Emile Berliner too human sound,
whether uttered in speech or song, and reproduced it, not as parody as in the tinfoil phonograph or in
the wax-cylinder graphophone which were already in existence, but in accurate and fadeless form to
echo down the ages as long as time endures. He enabled mankind to hold communion with
immortality. Masterpieces in oil have been copied as etchings. Many original creations have been
made by etchers. But to etch the human voice constituted a superb extension of the etching art into the
realm of physics, acoustics and of the human, living drama.

At the time the specifications were filed by Mr. Berliner at the United States Patent Office for
his process, he said, This record, meaning the phonautogram, may then be engraved either
mechanically, chemically or photo-chemically. For a long time he had little hope of success of a
purely chemical process of direct etching. The process was often suggested by others, but Mr. Berliner
found it was not so easily carried out. According to the principles of the gramophone, the etching
ground must offer practically no resistance to the stylus. To construct a ground which had little or no
resistance mechanically but would resist the etching fluid after the tracing was done, was the problem
to be solved.
 You will readily see, Mr. Berliner told his Franklin Institute audience in May, 1888, that if
we can cover, for instance, a polished metal plate with a delicate etching ground, trace in this a
phonautogram, and then immerse the plate in an etching fluid, the lines will be eaten in, and the result
will be a groove of even depth, such as is required for reproduction. Such a process, of course, would
be much more direct and quicker than the photo-engraving method.

In nature, provision seems to be made for all the ways of mankind. Confident in this belief, I
kept on trying to find a trail which would lead to promising results, and I have the honor tonight, for the
first time, to bring before you this latest achievement in the art of producing permanent sound records
from which a reproduction can be obtained, if necessary, within fifteen or twenty minutes, and which
can be accurately multiplied in any number by the electro-type process. It may be termed, in short, the
art of etching the human voice.

He utilized as an etching ground a fatty ink. One of the best inks Berliner discovered was made
by digesting pure yellow beeswax in cold gasoline or benzene. Benzene in a cold state did not dissolve
all the elements of the wax, but only a small part, namely, that which combined with the yellow
coloring principal. The resultant and decanted extract was a clear solution of golden hue, which
gradually became bleached by exposure to light. He employed the following proportions, one ounce of
finely scraped wax to one pint of gasoline. He employed a polished metal plate, usually zinc, and
flowed the fluid on and off, as if he were coating with collodion. The benzene quickly evaporated and
there remained a very thin layer of wax fat, iridescent under reflected light, not solid as a coating
produced by immersion in a melted mass, but spongy or porous and extremely sensitive to the slightest
touch.

Partly on account of the too great sensitiveness of a single film, and also as an additional
protection against the action of the acids employed in the subsequent etching, a second coating was
applied. This double coating, he found, answered all requirements. One of these prepared zinc discs
was then placed on a turntable and revolved at regular speed. A small reservoir of alcohol dripped the
fluid on the fatty film. The sound box and stylus were mounted in the usual manner so that the point of
the stylus cut through the fatty film. The entire mechanism was given a progressive motion so that
when the disc rotated, the stylus of the sound box inscribed a spiral line into the fatty film. If music or
speech was then directed into the sound box, the film assumed the wavy forms of the sound vibrations;
and when the record disc was immersed in the acid solution, the record lines were etched into the zinc,
forming a groove of even depth and varying direction, as distinguished from the phonograph-
graphophone record consisting of a groove of straight direction but of varying depth. Mr. Berliner was
soon manufacturing records out of zinc plates. The next step was to develop a process whereby
duplicate records could be made from an original disc. Berliner devised a plan which consisted of
making from an original zinc record a perfect reverse or matrix, by the process of electro-typing. This
showed the record lines raised over the surface of the disc. The reverse matrix he used for impressing
the record lines on some tough material, like hard rubber and celluloid, by the same method that seals
are made, by impressing an engraved letter or design into sealing wax. It was four years before Mr.
Berliner succeeded in perfecting matrices with certainty from any zinc record. In this work of
developing perfect sound copies in considerable quantities, he had the assistance of Max Levy, of
Philadelphia, a technical expert of ability. By 1892, perfect matrices were obtained. These men found
that after the copper surfaces were nickel plated, they could be impressed without deterioration into
hard rubber celluloid or composition previously softened by heat. At this point a serious thing
happened. It was found that hard rubber, from which a concern had undertaken to press the records
from the matrices furnished by Berliner, could not produce records of even quality. There were flat
places here and there, caused by gases developed by the rubber when heated, which rendered the whole
output unreliable. Berliner then approached a manufacturer of imitation rubber composition and
furnished them a matrix. Within a short time a dozen perfect disc records were supplied. Ever since
that time, the countless millions of disc records sold each year throughout the world have been made
from a similar material. The base of the composition is shellac, which is also the base of sealing wax,
and it is literally correct to say that a modern disc record is a seal of the human voice.

Thus for the first time in the history of talking machines was solved the problem of making
unlimited copies of one original record. Berliner had laid the foundations of a business of gigantic
dimensions.

Waldemar Kaempffert, one time editor of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and co-author of a
POPULAR HISTORY OF AMERICAN INVENTION, says:

Although millions of talking machine records are in use today, very few of those who derive
enjoyment from them realize that the acoustic principle on which they are based was Emile Berliner's
discovery. In other words, what is known in the trade as the 'lateral cut' record is his invention.

The tremendous importance of the lateral cut is demonstrated by the fact that large proportions
of the flat disc records which have been made embody Berliner's principle. Hence, he played a far
larger part than is commonly realized in bringing into millions of homes music and speech of the finest
quality. Whatever the telephone and the talking machine may have been before Berliner's time, I think
it cannot be successfully disputed that he converted them into the instruments they are today.
 Chapter Five

ELDRIDGE R. JOHNSON AND THE FOUNDING OF

THE VICTOR TALKING MACHINE COMPANY

It was at this stage, when the talking machine was regarded as a novelty or toy, that Eldridge R.
Johnson, later the founder of the Victor Talking Machine Company, became interested in the device.
He was then operating a small general machine shop in Camden, New Jersey. Mr. Johnson has himself
described his entry into the talking machine field, as follows:

During the model making days of the business, one of the very early types of talking machines
was brought to the shop for alterations. The little instrument was badly designed. It sounded much like
a partially educated parrot with a sore throat and a cold in the head. But the little wheezy instrument
caught my attention and held it fast and hard.

I became interested in it as I had never been interested in anything before. It was exactly what
I was looking for. It was a great opportunity, and it came to me as it can never come to any other man
in the talking machine business again. The talking machine was a new art with a boundless future
waiting only to be developed. The talking machine fever broke out all over me.

Mr. Berliner had given the world the greatest basic improvement in talking machines since the
day of Mr. Edison's original discovery, and I happened to be the man who happened to be there at the
right time to give this great discovery the needed improvements and refinements, and to manufacture it
in such forms and designs as to become most popular with the buying public. Many years of hard
experience in model working and repair work had well qualified me to cope with the intricate designs
and processes.

I immediately undertook a course of experimenting with talking machines and made discovery
after discovery until a talking machine of the disc gramophone type, capable not merely of reproducing
sound in its own mechanical fashion and in a tone of its own, but of reproducing the tone with a degree
of fidelity, stood in my laboratory.

In other words, before Mr. Johnson became interested in the talking machine, it was generally
known as the screech box, to use the trade expression. He took the screech out of the talking
machine and perfected it into a serious musical instrument, as distinguished from a novelty or toy. He
became the manufacturer of the gramophone for the Berliner Gramophone Company, in 1890. His
interest was aroused and he made an intensive study of the machine and developed first a spring motor,
the machines previously having been operated by hand, then improved the sound boxes; and most
important of all, developed a lateral cut record and process of reproducing the same which was the
paramount invention and which has continued extensively in commercial use to this day. This record
combined the properties of fine articulation and accurate recording of the hill and dale record with
the advantages of the Berliner record, that is, piloting the sound box and connected parts, and
reproducing with volume, greatly improving both. The record was introduced to the market in 1900,
immediately superceding the Berliner record, and practically eliminating the hill and dale record
from the market. These improvements resulted in the production of the improved gramophone, which
was immediately recognized by the public as a permanent addition to the world's musical instruments,
bringing the music and talent of the world to the home of the individual.

The Victor Talking Machine Company was organized in October, 1901. In that year a change
over from zinc etching to recording on hard wax tablets marked a magic expansion in the record
business. Adoption of wax for recording masters permitted a much cleaner cut, less surface noise, as
well as the music being much more faithfully recorded. Up until 1901, according to Mr. F. W.
Gaisberg in his recently published book, THE MUSIC GOES ROUND:

The development of the flat disc record had been held up by the complicated patents in the
hands of Emile Berliner, Edison, the American Graphophone Company, and the Columbia Company.
Berliner was prevented from using wax as a medium, by the J. W. Jones patent, for a groove of even
depth, which Columbia had bought for the modest sum of twenty-five thousand dollars. An injunction
brought the flat disc business in America to a standstill for several years. This was lifted in 1902, when
the litigants pooled patents. To this pool, Emile Berliner contributed a sound box guided by a spiral
groove, Columbia a stylus vibrating laterally and engraving a groove of even depth, and the
American Graphophone Company, wax as a medium of recording.

Victor and Columbia and the other recording companies then left the starting post neck to neck
and began the race to acquire famous recording artists to perform exclusively for their respective
companies.

Not only before 1900, when Mr. Johnson introduced his perfected disc record, but since then, he
has evolved other inventions of great importance in the development and refinement of the talking
machine. The most important of these were: first, the taper-arm and tone inventions introduced
commercially in 1903, by which construction this sound was continuously amplified from the sound
box to the mouth of the horn and at the same time the record was relieved of the weight and inertia of
the horn and the weight of the tone arm; secondly, the enclosed horn type or cabinet machine which
was placed upon the market in 1906 and which has become standard the world over. This involved
many radical inventions and changes in talking machine construction and design.

It is very clear today, in addition to the perfecting of the record and the recording process as
well as the instrument, that another great contribution of Mr. Johnson to the talking machine art was in
the vision that lay back of his work. At the time in which he become interested in the talking machine,
and for years afterward, there was little real faith in the future of the industry even by the men actively
engaged in it. One keen observer has put it this way:

As a universal musical instrument of quality the phonograph in the '90's was not to be
considered. Promoters of that day conceived it to be only a novelty from which a considerable profit
could be derived as a slot machine in railroad stations, hotel lobbies, bar rooms, and other places of
public assemblage. A man might not be very old to remember the many nickels he dropped into the
maw of the machine in order to hear a squeaky song, instrumental piece or comic recitation through a
pair of rubber ear tubes. My first recollection of such an experience was in the winter of 1905-1906, at
a penny arcade in Kansas City, Missouri, and the two records ground out were 'Please Go 'Way and Let
Me Sleep' and 'Meet Me in St. Louis.'

Mr. Johnson, however, felt deeply that the talking machine had a much greater future, that its
true realm was in the home, and he saw that its development must be that of a true musical instrument
with far-reaching educational and cultural possibilities. That vision formed the basis of his earlier work
and has been responsible for the striking development of the business under his guidance as well as of
the industry in which the Victor Talking Machine Company has been a leader since its formation. In
the many years of the Victor Talking Machine Company's existence, it has been responsible for many
important advances in the art of sound reproduction as well as in the acceptance of the talking machine
as a serious musical instrument by the public. It was Mr. Johnson's vision that was responsible for the
securing of great artists to record their finest art for the talking machine, beginning with Caruso in
1903, revolutionizing the viewpoint both of the public and much of the trade as to the musical
possibilities of the talking machine. He was also responsible for the steady insistence, in Victor
publicity, upon the musical and cultural aspects of the instrument.

A still further development was the formation, in 1911, of the educational department of the
Victor Talking Machine Company, the first of its kind in the world, and the introduction of the talking
machine into schools as a recognized part of the country's educational equipment. This field holds
endless possibilities and has never been utilized to the extent that it should be developed. In recent
years, however, its vast possibilities are coming to be adopted more and more by educators, not only of
sighted students, but of the blind as well.

Before closing this chapter, a few lines about perhaps the most famous little dog in the world
will be of interest. The puppy's name is Nipper, and he has become world famous on Victor
showcards, catalogues, and other advertising matter in His Master's Voice, a trademark depicting a
little dog listening with alert attention and ears lifted in front of a horn from which he hears his master
speak. Everyone in the civilized world has smiled when looking at this little dog.

The original picture was created by Francis Barraud. Mr. Barraud says in part:

I painted the picture before I had ever heard of the Gramophone Company, and the instrument
which appeared in it was a talking machine of nondescript type. I called it 'His Master's Voice' and
showed it to several publishers, as I thought there would be a demand for it as a reproduction. These
gentlemen, however, were not of the same opinion, offering varied and sundry objections.

In the meantime, I was thinking of improvements. I was not satisfied with the trumpet I had
painted. It was black and ugly, and I wanted something more pictorial. One day a friend of mine
suggested I should call on the Gramophone Company and ask them to lend me a brass horn to paint
from; so, armed with a small photograph of my oil painting, I paid them a visit at their offices, which
were then in Maiden Lane. To a gentleman I saw there, I expressed what I required and showed him
the photograph. He asked at once if he might show it to the manger, Mr. Barry Owen. I agreed. Mr.
Owen shortly came out and asked me if the picture was for sale and whether I could introduce a
machine of their own make, a gramophone instead of the one in the picture. I replied that the picture
was for sale and I could make the alteration if they would let me have an instrument to paint from.

The change was made and the picture was bought from me. I then advised the Gramophone
Company not to make it an obvious advertisement by putting their name across the background, but to
leave it without any lettering and merely give it the title I had already suggested, namely, 'His Master's
Voice.' I pointed out that the subject spoke for itself and required no explanation.

The artist says that at the time the picture was painted, Nipper was a living dog belonging to his
brother, Mark, who lived at Bristol, England. When my brother died, said Mr. Barraud, Nipper
attached himself to me and I had him for many years. He did not know he was going to be handed
down to posterity. No more did I.

Nipper bids fair to go on listening into the ages.

 Chapter Six

FROM THE EARLIEST DAYS OF THE

PHONOGRAPH TO 1925

It seems fitting before continuing our history of the phonograph industry, to take a brief survey
of the record materials used, the type of recording employed and the method of duplicating or making
record copies.

We learned that Tainter and Bell developed a cylinder record which consisted of a cardboard
bas coated with a thin layer of stearin soap and zinc and iron oxides. Later formulae for wax cylinder
records have already been given.

Emile Berliner, about 1888, made disc records from zinc plates, covering them with a thin fatty
film which was, of course, acid resisting. When the zinc record was immersed in an acid bath, the
recording was etched, as it were, into the zinc plate; but the noise level when played was extremely
high, though the recordings were surprisingly good for those early days in the development of the art of
record making. Afterward, recording pressings were made in ebonite and finally a substance, the
principal constituent of which is shellac, was developed; and this formula, with various modifications,
is still largely utilized by the entire talking machine record industry. Disc records were much smoother
if the wax masters were used in place of metal ones.

It is to be borne in mind that in the earliest days of the cylinder record industry, there was no
process known for duplicating records, as was later developed by cylinder makers, known as the gold
molding process. The method of depositing molecules was practically the same as is employed today
in the disc record master and is now called sputtering. In those primitive days, when a number of
records was desired for a certain instrumental selection or some popular song, a singer sang with all his
might or a musician played very loud and clear into several long horns or trumpets connected to as
many recording machines as practicable. Of course the horns nearest the performer carried more
volume to the cutting styli of the recorders close up, and naturally these were the choice records and
usually brought a higher price.

How so much could be done with so little has always been one of the marvels of the field of
acoustics. A crude recording phonograph, an elongated horn, a metal diaphragm with recording stylus
attached, and a bit of wax constituted the equipment which was generally housed in a dark little studio
with little or no ventilation.

Let us picture in our mind's eye one of these recording studios of, say, twenty years ago and see
just how little equipment was available and how meager was the amount of sound which could actually
be recorded on a wax master.

The studio was perfectly plain so that the walls could reflect every bit of sound. The record
horn gradually tapered from bell to orifice, and faced an oval wall, and between this oval and the
opening of the recording horn, the singer or instrumental soloist was placed. The orchestra was of
necessity quite small and the arrangement was often uncomfortable and inconvenient for various
members of the group. Most of the violins used for the purpose in those days were of the infamous
Stroh type, that is to say, a megaphone-like horn was attached to the bridge in order that greater volume
could be had. Bear in mind that volume was necessary but the volume had to be undisturbed and as
many as possible the sound waves had to be captured on the wax disc.
 It must also be borne in mind that a good singing voice and its accompanying orchestra has a
range of from thirty to about twelve thousand cycles per second in acoustic recording. Only a small
portion of this wide variety of tone color went into the wax master, as the recorder was utterly
incapable of recording some of the lower fundamentals as well as much of the wealth of overtone,
which we now enjoy in our recorded music. Only about two and a half octaves of the human voice
could be recorded satisfactorily, so much of the richness found in overtones was lost. Three hundred
and fifty to approximately three thousand cycles was about the maximum which could be gotten from
the old acoustic recorder. The world, however, was greatly enriched by the utilization in such full
measure of the materials and equipment at hand in the industry. It is a curious fact, but one that is,
nevertheless, true, that the mind can and does often supply or apparently furnish the sounds which are
absent in the music played to us, and the illusion here served for a long time. Proof of this was
furnished experimentally several years ago, in the Bell Telephone Laboratories of New York City. The
fundamental and the first three or four overtones were filtered out of a reproduced note, but the listener,
when asked to strike the note on the piano, in practically ever case struck the missing fundamental.
Apparently the mind is not as accurately aware of these missing fundamentals and filtered out
overtones as a machine.

From what has been said, the reader can realize to some degree the many limitations of acoustic
recording and the inconvenience to which the performing artists were placed. Vocalists had to sing
with all their might, but at the same time, they must prevent the slightest suspicion of blasting and their
voices must remain as natural as possible. The megaphones fitted to most of the violins had to be
directed to the recording system so that the volume could be captured at its peak. The cellist had to sit
high enough that the sounds from his instrument could go directly into the recording orifice. Brass
instruments had to be kept well in the background and no semblance of common-sense arrangement of
the instruments of the orchestra could be maintained. But, nevertheless, it was under such trying
conditions that Caruso, Melba, Schumann-Heink and others worked with such pains and skill under
these almost unsurmountable difficulties to bring us the solace and artistry of their unforgettable music
on magic black round discs. Incidentally, not long since, the RCA Victor Company developed a
method whereby Caruso's voice could be accompanied by the famous Philadelphia Symphony
Orchestra, the recording of this orchestra being done by the modern electrical method.
 Chapter Seven

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIA

PHONOGRAPH COMPANY

Let us now go back to the year 1887. It was during this year that the Columbia Phonograph
Company was organized. It was first in making records by engraving on wax, in the building of
popularly priced spring motor phonographs, in the production of the Columbia Grand cylinder record
with its increased surface speed and fine quality and volume. It was first in the production of wax
cylinder records by the gold molding process, the laminated disc record, the new process smooth
surfaced Columbia record. This company was the first to institute the recording of great stars of opera
and concert. Recordings were made by the late Edouard de Reszke and Ernestine Schumann-Heink,
that appeared during the earliest years of this century.

The Columbia Phonograph Company was the pioneer in America in the institution of its great
master works series of the world's most celebrated symphonic and concert compositions issued in
album sets, the company having had on the market a very considerable repertory of these great works
before other companies seriously entered this particular field. Previous to the issuance of Columbia's
first catalogue of master works sets, there had been merely one or two attempts at presenting an
occasional album of this kind.

Alexander Graham Bell, the eminent scientist and inventor of the telephone, was intimately
associated with the early history of sound recording and reproducing. It is held by some that it is a
historical fact that Dr. Bell's laboratory was the birthplace of the art. The contributions of this
illustrious man to this wonder working art made possible the discoveries embodied in Letters Patent,
Number 341214, which has been judicially recognized as the fundamental patent. Not only did he
direct and aid in the experiments and investigations conducted by Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner
Tainter, placing at their disposal all the facilities and conveniences which his laboratory offered, but he
defrayed the expenses of the same. He personally conducted experiments on his own behalf which
were productive of highly important results. He was a joint inventor with these two associates in other
graphophonic patents.

To Alexander Graham Bell, therefore, must be ascribed much of the honor of the discovery and
reduction to practicability of the scientific principles which gave to the world the art of recording and
reproducing sound.

In 1886, the United States Patent Office issue to Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter,
United States Letters Patent, Number 341214, which has already been mentioned, covering a method of
engraving record of sound, producing records of sound by engraving in a wax-like material. The
inventions disclosed in the Bell and Tainter patent embodied the discoveries resulting from years of
research and investigation conducted by the joint inventors.

One eminent authority puts the matter thus, Upon the patent rests the talking machine
industry. The courts of the United States have sustained it in several instances. Judge Shipman, in
one case 87 FR 873, had to consider all that had gone before because all that other inventors had
done or attempted to do was introduced in the evidence. Judge Shipman decided that Bell and Tainter
had made an actual living invention which the public was able to use.

The Bell and Tainter patent instructed the world how to make a practical, commercial, transportable
record of sound.

On the same day the fundamental patent of Bell and Tainter was issued, another patent was
granted to Tainter alone for a method of duplicating or copying sound records. This patent has an
important bearing on present day conditions in the industry because it disclosed the method of making
electroplated matrices from the original sound record. This is in principle the process which is in use
today, that is to say, by covering the surface of the original sound record with a fine coating of
plumbago, in order to get a conducting surface, and then electroplating on this surface to produce the
matrix or metallic copy of the record. Bronze powder is now quite extensively used. In the same
patent, Tainter also described a method of copying records by a mechanical, duplicating machine,
which was contained in the same patent application.

These patents were afterward acquired by the Graphophone Company and were developed and
exploited by that company, which thus became the owner of the above named patents. These patents
were several times judicially declared to be the fundamental ones on which the industry was founded,
and it is apparent that by their acquisition, the Graphophone Company became not alone owner of these
fundamental patents but also pioneers and leaders in the talking machine industry. Soon after, the
company began the manufacture of machines according to the principles and specifications of the Bell
and Tainter patents.

The immense strides which the recording and reproducing art and the industry have made, and
the wonderful charm and fascination of present day talking machines and records, are due in great part
to the invaluable contributions which the Graphophone Company gave to the new art.

The machines were called Graphophones and the records were known as Graphophone
Records. This designation, which has always been retained by the Graphophone Company for its
simpler types of machines, is, according to one writer, the true and correct one. But the public, always
its own master, has given the more easily pronounced one of talking machine to all types
indiscriminately. The machines and records manufactured by the Graphophone Company have been
marketed as Columbia Graphophones, Columbia Grafonolas and Columbia double disc records.

As early as 1898, the United States Patent Office adopted the word Graphophone was the
official classification for sound reproducing machines and graphophonic art as the official
designation of the art of sound recording and reproducing.

The story of Edward D. Easton's part in the early history of the Graphophone Company is one
of pioneer courage and foresight. He was a stenographer in Washington, D.C., at the time the Bell and
Tainter patent was granted. He was thirty-one years of age when he was shown a working model of the
original machine, and was prompt to realize its great utility and to foresee the immense possibilities of
an industry founded upon that invention. Mr. Easton immediately noted in his diary the following:
Saw the laboratory model of the new talking machine. I have determined it is a great opportunity for a
profitable and large occupation. Mr. Easton was one of the original stockholders in the Graphophone
Company, so that his name stands out as one of those who was actively associated with the industry
from its birth.

The first machines put out were laboratory made models. There were placed in his care.
Edward D. Easton was the first man in the world to offer talking machines for use, sale or rental.

The machines referred to in the preceding paragraph offered by Mr. Easton were manufactured
in the laboratories of the Graphophone Company. This company was the first to manufacture a
practical, usable talking machine and transportable, interchangeable records. After the validity of the
Bell and Tainter patent had been established, other manufactures sought and were granted from the
Graphophone Company licenses under this patent.

A little later, while the company was still very young and before the industry had made a
forward movement, when the company was, in fact, in danger of succumbing to exhaustion, Edward D.
Easton was called upon to assume it presidency and the direction of its affairs and destinies. Its
treasury at that time was empty, and it had a burden of debt which looked colossal. Mr. Easton put life
into the company, money into its treasury, and heart into its directors. Gifted with great foresight, he
was confident of the wonderful possibilities from an industrial point of view. Despite the obstacles
which confronted him, in the attempt to exploit an invention of such novel and (as it was urged by
friends) doubtful utility, and in the creation of an absolutely new industry, he went ahead vigorously
with the reorganization of the company and its plans.

Inspired by his confidence, his associates gave him their hearty support in all of his efforts.
Adequate financial resources for the company's development were an absolute sine qua non and it
devolved upon Mr. Easton to provide them. Here also he displayed qualities which mark him as an
able and astute financier. He invested his own capital in the venture and convinced others of the
enormous possibilities of the enterprise. At every stage of development, he commanded ample capital
for the company's operation.

In developing the fundamental discoveries of Bell and Tainter, the Graphophone Company,
through its laboratory experts and scientific experiments, made numerous discoveries which it
promptly contributed to the enrichment of the art. This important contribution was based upon the
discoveries of Thomas Hood MacDonald, who was for sixteen years manager of the Graphophone
Company and, at the time of his death in 1911, the company's chief experimentalist and a member of
the board of directors. He made a great advance in the construction of the talking machine and every
spring motor talking machine in use today is modeled on the principle of the MacDonald spring motor.

The Graphophone Grand was also the invention of Mr. MacDonald and revolutionized the
hitherto know methods and processes of recording. The MacDonald Graphophone Grand patent
disclosed that a critical speed for the surface of the record must be attained to secure the best results.
The discover of this great principle in sound recording gave an immense impetus to the art and the
industry. The company also granted licenses to other American concerns engaged in the manufacturing
of talking machines to share in the benefits of this patent.

Following the MacDonald Grand patent, and next in point of time, came what is knows as the
Jones patent covering an invention by J. W. Jones, which consisted in adapting the cutting and
engraving principle discovered by Bell and Tainter to the marking of a zigzag record. In other words,
the bottom of the groove remained flat while the sounds vibrations were impinged or cut on the walls
of the record groove. This patent was granted to Mr. Jones when he was but seventeen years of age.
He had formerly been associated with Emile Berliner. The discovery revolutionized the making of
disc records, and all present day disc records are covered by this invention. The Graphophone
Company granted licenses under this patent to other manufacturers of phonograph records.

The Graphophone Company was the first to introduce in this country a disc record having music
on both sides, and to sell it at the price of a single record. This was a great innovation entirely in the
interest of users, which was quickly appreciated by them, as it afforded an opportunity to double their
supply of choice selections at the cost of a single disc. The introduction of the double sided disc
records by this company, although assailed as impracticable by some manufacturers, proved an
immediate success. The public adopted it with enthusiasm, and it is today the most popular form of
disc talking machine record.

During the interval covered in the this brief history, there were granted in inventors all over the
world, United States and foreign patents aggregating thousands and covering almost every conceivable
or imaginable thing which could have any bearing at all upon sound recording or reproducing. A very
large proportion of these patents have been of the freak type, which disclose a mere idea not
reducible to any commercial possibility. Many others have covered really useful and practical
improvements and have done their share in improving the art and the industry. The Graphophone
Company has itself taken out large numbers of useful patents covering improvements, as have also
other manufacturers engaged in the industry.

In 1887, the company undertook the manufacture and marketing of the machines and records
covered by the basic or fundamental patent of Bell and Tainter. A tiny factory was installed in
Bridgeport, Connecticut, and the manufacturing of machines was begun at once. In the beginning the
output of that insignificant plant was three or four machines per day. Once it totaled five machines but
the entire force worked until nearly midnight. From this very early beginning grew a great industry, a
monument to American inventive skill and American industrial creativeness. From a corner in a small
building in 1887, this company's plant in 1930 occupied two city squares covered with buildings
crowded with machinery and equipment of modern character. Instead of the original dozen workmen,
it employed a factory force of a thousand, and in lieu of a daily maximum output of five machines, the
capacity was increased to more than one thousand a day, besides their output of records which
aggregated millions annually. During the heyday of the industry, the Columbia Company had, in
addition to its main factory at Bridgeport, splendidly equipped plants in London, England, and Toronto,
Canada, for the manufacture of records and for assembling machines for the European and Canadian
markets.
 Chapter Eight

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EDISON PHONOGRAPH

You will recall that the story of the phonograph started when, on August 12, 1877, Thomas
Alva Edison handed to his assistant, Mr. John Kreusi, the now famous sketch of the phonograph, with
instructions for Kreusi to make the machine as quickly as possible. Just how long before this time Mr.
Edison had been occupied with the study of voice writing is uncertain, but very likely he had been
considering the matter for several months.

Mr. Edison's first British patent on the phonograph was filed on July 30, 1877. The machine
which Kreusi constructed was delivered to Mr. Edison and tried out on August 15, and the United
States patent application was filed on December 24 and granted without a single reference on February
19, 1878. Just two days before the filing of this patent, the story of the phonograph's first visit to the
offices of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN was published in that paper.

This machine became known as the tin foil phonograph, although, in the patent application, it is
interesting to note that Mr. Edison had revealed that he had tried recording on a great variety of
surfaces, including wax, and wax covered paper. He also described in his patent the revolving plate or
disc instrument as well as the cylinder machine, which was the one more frequently used at that time.

No sooner was the description of the phonograph published than every ingenious mechanic
proceeded either to test out the principles by making his own machine, or to try various adaptations of
the original invention. On November 29, 1878, A. Wifford Hall applied for a patent on two
phonograph cylinders geared together in such manner that the diaphragm received an impulse not only
forward, but also backward, when such diaphragm was mounted between the two cylinders. A little
later, Christopher Columbus Reynolds received a patent on the idea of recording by cutting the edges
of a soft metallic ribbon. About the same time, 1881, Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the
telephone, deposited with the Smithsonian Institute, in Washington, D.C., a machine which he named
the Graphophone and which was structurally practically identical with Edison's tin foil phonograph,
except that Bell made the recording on wax paper or cardboard, which was wrapped around the
cylinder instead of the fragile tin foil. More than two years had passed since the formation of the
Edison Speaking Phonograph Company, which was incorporated in Norwalk, Connecticut, on April 24,
1878. A managing committee, appointed to have all the power of the board of directors of this
company, consisted of Gardener Green Hubbard, Uriah H. Painter and Edward H. Johnson.

The offices of this new enterprise were located at 203 Broadway, New York City. Charles A.
Cheever presided over the future of the embryonic phonograph, and also the Bell telephone. A little
later, when these offices were removed to 66 Reade Street, New York City, the business of both
companies was still carried on in the same location. From these rooms, swarms of demonstrators were
sent out to exhibit the new machine, and it is said that the royalties from exhibits in Boston,
Massachusetts, alone, at one time ran as high as eighteen hundred dollars per week.

Gardiner G. Hubbard, who as we mentioned above was one of the directors in the Edison
Speaking Phonograph Company, had been one of Alexander Graham Bell's original backers in his
experimental work on the telephone and was at this time his father-in-law. It was, therefore, natural
that Alexander Graham Bell, who had associated himself with his cousin, Chichester A. Bell, and
Charles Sumner Tainter, in the enterprise known as the Volta Laboratories, should have been
experimenting with the phonograph. On June 27, 1885, Chichester A. Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter
applied for a patent on a machine which they called the Graphophone. The chief claim for this
machine was that it introduced the idea of engraving or cutting the surface of a wax paper or cardboard
cylinder.

Since Mr. Edison's invention of the phonograph, he had found himself very much occupied with
his work on the incandescent lamp and with the installation of electric lighting plants, not only in New
York City but in hundreds of other cities in the United States and abroad.

In the four years beginning with 1887, Mr. Edison alone applied for eight patents on the
phonograph. Six patents had been granted to others during the period of 1878 to 1887. These
applications of Mr. Edison included the solid, molded wax record with shavable surface and many
variations in diaphragms, recorder and reproducer points, as well as structural and mechanical
improvements.

On October 8, 1887, nearly two months before the West Orange Laboratory was ready for
occupancy, the Edison Phonograph Company was organized. Mr. Edison transferred his many
phonograph patents, by assignment of October 28, 1887, it having been his purpose that such company
should prosecute and carry on, either directly or through subcompanies and agencies, the business of
selling and handling phonographs throughout the United States and Canada. Shortly after the company
was organized, Mr. Edison sold the stock of the Edison Phonograph Company to one Jesse H.
Lippincott, who by contract of March 26, 1888, had already acquired from the American Graphophone
Company the exclusive right to rent and sell the graphophone under the Bell and Tainter patents.

Mr. Lippincott organized the North American Phonograph Company as a parent concern, to
which company he assigned the sales rights for both the phonograph and the graphophone. Also
approximately thirty subcompanies were organized to carry on the business of selling and leasing
machines in their respective territories. The capitalization of all these companies aggregated nearly
thirty million dollars.

The Columbia Phonograph Company, with offices at 627 E Street, Washington, D.C., had been
organized, as we have previously seen, by Edward D. Easton, as one of the local companies operating
under license from the North American Phonograph Company, and with territory covering the District
of Columbia, Maryland, and Delaware. The North American Phonograph Company became insolvent
in May, 1891. Soon thereafter, Mr. Lippincott was taken sick and died, but some of his business was
absorbed by the expansion of the Columbia Phonograph Company. The North American Phonograph
Company, which was in the hands of the receiver, was the outright owner of the Edison Phonograph
Company and thus held all the rights for the sale of Edison phonographs. In this way Mr. Edison's
affairs were tied up pending the settlement of the receivership.

The use of the phonograph as a musical instrument began with Mr. Edison's organization of the
National Phonograph Company, January 24, 1896, and his transfer to this company of the assets of the
North American Phonograph Company, which he had purchased from the hands of the receiver. Up to
this time the phonograph had been used almost entirely for the purpose of business dictation. The wax
cylinders were sold as blanks and, if the recording of music was tried, it was necessary that each record
be made separately by the artist. This new company directed its attention toward the modification and
improvement of the machine, made necessary by its new use in the musical field, while the Edison
business phonograph, now the Ediphone, was continually improved in the direction of the special
requirements for its work.
 The great majority of these business machines produced up to this period were driven by an
electric motor. The musical machine was now simplified by the introduction of the spring motor and
soon after this, about 1901 or 1902, there was introduced a method of duplicating musical records by
metallic plating and the making of a negative mold, from which any number of wax castings of a given
selection could be made. Mr. Edison accomplished this in the following manner: The original waxes
were made conducting by evaporating or sputtering gold onto the wax at a very high voltage in a
vacuum. About this time the use of very fine graphite was employed to render the original wax master
conducting. A stamper was plated from the conducting wax and from this a thermoplastic final record
was then pressed.

Up to 1906, these cylinder records contained only two minutes of musical recordings but in the
above year they were increased to four minutes. This was accomplished by narrowing the threads per
inch from one hundred to two hundred. Incidentally, attachments for the Edison phonographs then in
use could be installed on most models manufactured prior to 1906, to permit the playing of the new
four minute records. In 1912, blue celluloid cylinders began to replace the wax record, and the needle
point was changed from sapphire to diamond to better accommodate the harder surface of the record.
In 1912 also, Mr. Edison began the production of his diamond disc records and phonographs. Both the
cylinder and disc machines were made until the manufacture of both was discontinued with the advent
of radio, about 1929. This business was carried on as the National Phonograph Company from 1896 to
1911. The company was then reorganized and became known as Thomas A. Edison, Inc., and the
manufacture of the business phonograph of the National Phonograph Company was taken over by the
Ediphone Division of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., which throughout this entire period continued the
manufacture of this machine for business dictation.

Before closing this chapter, the author feels that something should be added concerning the
Edison diamond disc phonograph and the Edison diamond disc record. Mr. Edison was not satisfied
with his handiwork on the cylinder phonograph, even though thousands of machines and millions of
cylinder records had been sold. About the year 1906, he began a long series of investigations on sound
and music, which ultimately led to his disc phonograph and the records which were to be known as re-
creations.

Thomas A. Edison studied music and musical compositions, with a view to the selection of the
choice in music for record purposes. He maintained that there were inventors in the fine art of music
just as truly as there were inventors in the mechanical fields. Composers such as Verdi, Bellini,
Rossini, and Donizetti were inventors and in no sense copyists, said Mr. Edison. His experience with
sound reproduction convinced him that certain compositions and certain voices were best for recording
purposes. Opera singers were not always best for recording studio work, due to the fact that their
voices were usually expected to fill large auditoriums in operatic roles and, therefore, such demands
compelled these artists to perform at capacity levels, whereas singing for the phonograph allowed
performers to sing at greater ease. Mr. Edison did not wish to imply that all opera singers' voices were
unsuitable for recording work, for many could and did render perfectly satisfactory numbers for
recording in a most acceptable manner and with sweetness and beauty as well.

Thousands upon thousands of musical compositions were listened to and checked by Mr.
Edison, and hundreds of performers were employed by him to sing at his request. All such renditions
were carefully tabulated, and perhaps this is the most complete file of its kind in the world today. A
representative was also sent to Europe to listen to singers who might be able to make records to Mr.
Edison's liking. Not only were the large cities visited but small country villages as well. Accurate
records were sent to Mr. Edison on the findings and results of such investigations. The ardent desire of
the inventor was to bring into the American home music that would be beautiful and sweet and
reproduced in such a manner that the performer's voice could be truly re-created. All the resources at
this command were bent to the production of such a phonograph.

There were many and sundry problems to be solved and Mr. Edison knew it would require years
of experimentation and research as well as all his energies. A new recorder and a new reproducer, with
vastly different characteristics, had to be designed. These of necessity must have features and
characteristics differing widely from any then in use. The inventor decided to go back to the idea of the
disc phonograph to perfect his ideal instrument.

Of course a new material had to be found for the record. This material must be pliable,
indestructible, and, above all, it must be free from excessive rasping or scratch. In other words, the
surface of the record had to be perfectly smooth in order that the beauty of the music would not be
marred.

A diamond point was designed for the reproducer and, after severe tests and thousands upon
thousands of playings, the point was found to be in perfect condition. Heavy, period design cabinets
were used to house the instruments. Looking back from this vantage point, the reproduction from these
Edison diamond disc phonographs was pretty fine, considering that electrical methods had not been
introduced into the art and only acoustical methods were still employed.

The most concentrated and intense work was presently put into the last five weeks of the
development of the Edison disc phonograph and records that Mr. Edison and his staff ever exerted on
any project. The men, except for intermittent visits home, remained in the laboratory day and night
until all the main features of the instrument and record had been decided upon. This tremendous task
was largely completed in the late summer and early fall of 1911, but it was not until 1913 that the
instruments were actually placed on the market. The public's acceptance was warm and cordial, and
many of the musical groups who created the records were unique. The music selected, the type of
singer and the unusual arrangements were outstanding features of the Edison re-creation record. The
discs were very heavy and held up well even under hard usage.
 Chapter Nine

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES

The author feels justified, at this point, in telling his own story concerning the gramophone and
other talking machines. This story assumes more importance in its relation to this book when the
reader bears in mind that my interest in the phonograph has considerably affected, and in many respects
determined, the destiny as well as the highways chosen through the years.

If my memory serves me right, it was about the winter of 1898 or 1899 that the first
gramophone was brought to our community. Our family lived in a large white ranch house in a
sparsely settled neighborhood in south central Kansas. The writer was at the time between five and six
years of age. It was a beautiful golden sunshiny afternoon and the steamers of liquid sunlight were
lying in the bright billows on the floor. My sisters had been to a near-by little Methodist church the
night before to hear a gramophone program given by a Mr. C. T. Littlepage, one of the few entertainers
of that day who owned one of these marvels.

The girls described the instrument telling in glowing enthusiasm how it sang and played and
talked. I stopped my play and was all ears! Nothing had ever before so fired my childish imagination,
and question after question was put to each of my sisters.

The next talking machine episode, which I experienced, must have taken place in the winter of
1902, when I was taken by my uncle Alfred to hear a concert at the First Baptist Church in Anthony,
Kansas, where we were living. I was thrilled beyond words and the thrill has continued to be ever
present with me.

One hot summer's morning in late July, 1905, I was in the small confectionery of our town and
missed the little gramophone from the little table which sat in the back room. Mr. Miller, the owner of
the place, said to me, Why, you can have it if you wish it. He put it together with about twenty-five
or thirty little disc records in a market basket and I carried my precious gift home as proud of it as if it
had been a key to the archives of wisdom, and such it almost proved to be for me.

Physically, its appearance was pretty plain and simple. The baseboard on which the little
cabinet sat, which enclosed the mechanism, was approximately 9 x 9 and the cabinet 7 x 7. Inside
this cabinet was housed a simple clockwork mechanism with a large and heavy spring as the driving
force. The turntable was light, just 7 in diameter, and the horn or trumpet about 12 long with a 7 or
8 bell. The reproducer was heavy and the discs were very noisy. In fact the scratch level was almost
as great as the music itself. Notwithstanding all these imperfections, however, the Hayden Quartet
sounded like a choir of angels singing Nearer My God to Thee, and Harry MacDonough like some
prophet of old as he sang The Holy City.

This simple, squeaky, grinding, scratching, little talking machine was my constant companion
and more and more discs were ordered. Incidentally most of them were only 7 in diameter, but 8
discs were placed on the market about 1906. My sister Nellie and I were entranced and we sat hour
after hour enjoying songs whose words were scarcely distinguishable at all, Kiss Me Honey Do sung
by Albert Campbell, The Pumpkin Pie My Mother Used to Make by Edward M. Favor, My Dusky
Rose by Harry Tally, our only 10 record which the machine would not play without rewinding
between verses. But we loved it and almost every time I see her we talk about it.
 My own little narrow, cabined, cribbed and confined world began to expand, and people and
places were becoming actual and living things. I wanted to know who these men and women were who
sang and played for the gramophone, and just where the places were they sang aboutPhiladelphia,
Pennsylvania; Camden and East Orange, New Jersey; and Bridgeport, Connecticutall these places
where phonographs were made. What were these cities like and why were they chosen for the places
that manufactured such wonderful things? In my childish mind I determined to find out these things
and also why a machine could sing and play and speak, what materials had to be used in record
making, and why couldn't other materials be used just as well? So my search began, and it still goes
on; but it has brought a wealth of satisfaction and many friends and perhaps the finest individual
collection of books and original manuscripts on the subject of the phonograph in the entire United
States.

It was but a short time until I had completely dismantled the little Victor machine and was quite
familiar with its few parts. Since then I have owned phonographs of practically every variety, both
cylinder and disc, some with ordinary plain horns, others with the brilliantly colored morning glory
horns. Ultimately came the cabinet models and last of all the electrically operated, majestically toned
combinations, of which I have been privileged to acquire several models. These instruments are
undoubtedly the fulfillment of the dreams of Edison and Berliner and others, those men who believed
that the phonograph was destined to have an enviable place in the American home, not only as a
beautiful piece of furniture but as well a grand musical instrument. The simplest of tone poems and the
most sublime of symphonies are being listened to today by millions, reproduced lifelike and natural
from these electrical reproducers.

The first real inspiration of my life was given me by the possession of that little Victor
gramophone. I was a visually handicapped child living, as has been noted, in a rural area with but little
to occupy my time. Leisure time therapy had not been developed, as now. From this insignificant little
talking machine I learned how to pronounce words clearly, how to appreciate good music and
discovered for myself what a rich storehouse of sound records was at my command; and here, at least,
in the realm of the phonograph I was denied none of heaven's symphony. The music of The Temple
was perhaps more real to me that to my playmates, whose concentration was undoubtedly interrupted
because of their observance of the trivialities of the moment. Year after year, even after my formal
education started, I continued to devote my spare time to the study of the science and art of the
phonograph, and to the enjoyment of new recordings. The disc machine was rapidly supplanting the
cylinder and by about 1913, the disc record was proclaimed the king of records.

As I recall, there was no place where disc records were obtainable in our county, from the time I
was given the little gramophone up until perhaps 1908 or 1909. Edison and Columbia cylinders were
obtainable, however, in quite substantial quantities and I spent many of my leisure hours in town
playing these fascinating rolls of sweet sounds. The quiet surface of these records was quite restful
compared with the loud scratching of the early disc records. Then too these fantastic, prettily colored
and gaily decorated morning glory horns attracted more than merely the children of that generation. Of
all my childhood recollections none stands out quite so vividly and pleasantly as those happy hours
spent in the little music store, just down the street, amongst the phonographs and records. Practically
all of those kind people who were then connected with the company have passed to their reward, and if
they can feel impulses of gratitude from a child of earth, a child to whom they brought joy and
happiness, surely they must be aware of my depth of appreciation.

After returning from school in the spring of 1907, my good father made me a gift of one of
those wonderful Edison phonographs with lots of records and a big blue morning glory horn. My heart
was simply overflowing with joy. The sweet savor of wax, as I opened those little round boxes in
which were kept my precious cylinders of magic, still lingers in my memory even to this day. My
collection of records was my pride and joy. Hours on end were spent playing my choice numbers,
which included: Leaf by Leaf the Roses Fall, by the Edison Quartet; Face to Face, sung by Harry
Anthony; I'm Tying the Leaves so They Won't Come Down, by Byron G. Harland; Forest
Whispers, played by the Edison Symphony Orchestra; Starlight Maid, sung by Billy Murry; Speed
Away, by the Edison Mixed Quartet; Old Jim's Christmas Hymn, by Harrison and Anthony; The
Mountain King, sung by Frank C. Stanley; Rainbow, sung by Ada Jones and Billy Murry; and
dozens of others.

Then as now, every experimentally minded phonograph owner wanted to try his luck at record
making. We call it home recording these days. Well, I obtained some blanks, a recorder which
consisted of a little metal gadget with a tubelike projection on one side to which the horn could be
connected by a rubber gasket, a mica-diaphragm on which was soldered a cutting stylus. The
diaphragm was fastened by means of a miniature hinge to the other side of the supporting plate. The
recording horn followed the conventional design of those days, tapering gradually from bell to orifice.
No professional recordist could have been more proud of his equipment, though mine cost less than ten
dollars. The meager instructions were read and almost reverently adhered to, the apparatus assembled
with ceremonial care and precision, and with expectations high and enthusiasm unbounding, Sis and I
began to try our wings in the mystical ocean of wax. But, alas! Imagine our disappointment when our
voices were scarcely audible and our music hardly recognizable, and we had all but screamed into that
long black elongated recording horn. But did we quit? Never! We kept sawing away at the fiddle,
thumping on the piano, blaring on the harmonica and screaming at the top of our voices, and did we
have fun!

We had heard somewhere that all the sound should be conserved, so we tried rooms draped and
undraped, little rooms and big rooms; and one day we covered ourselves with a heavy comforter,
allowing only the orifice of the horn to protrude and connect to the recorder. I blared away on the
harmonica and Nellie sang, but again we were doomed to disappointment, as we did not then realize
that the covering had absorbed most of our sound vibrations. Of course, another thing, which we did
not realize to any considerable degree, was that numerous makeshifts were necessary and that
meticulous attention had to be given to every detail. Even well recorded commercial cylinders taxed
the apparatus then available to the limit, for never was so much accomplished with so little, and it will
always be to the credit of those masters of the recording art that they were able to bring so much
pleasure to the music loving public by the distribution of the thousands of cylinders and discs, which
were made possible only by their skill and long suffering patience.

In the spring of 1913, I bought a Victrola and a number of records. By that time I was starting
my ministerial career and recall how pleasurably I looked forward to the days I would have at home,
between trips, to spend with my sister enjoying our mutual pastime, playing and discussing records,
artists and music. Our living room was a concert hall where the stars light and grand opera, as well as
the popular idols of the day, sang to us. And the great symphonies poured their oceans of melody and
harmony through all the corners and crannies of our very happy and peaceful home. We listened with
rapture to Caruso, Melba, Scotti, McCormick, Galli-Curci, and others of equal ability. The light music
came in for its aesthetic and entertainment value, and many were the popular and war songs, as well as
light opera gems, that helped our musical hours pass so swiftly and pleasantly, to say nothing of the
profit and cultural value we received. Songs like Keep the Home Fires Burning, There's a Long,
Long Trail a Winding, Goodbye Broadway, Hello France seem now to be blended into the present
conflict. Such love songs as the following were the favorites: Kiss Me Again, You Said Something
When You Said You Loved Me, Fair Hawaii, and Aloha Oea. There were many more also that
kept our romantic sentiments alive.

Remember all these records were acoustically recorded and no orthiphonic Victrola, viva-tonal
Columbia or electric reproducer had as yet been dreamed of, but, nevertheless, we loved our old
acoustic Victrola and records, and nothing could have contributed more happiness and pleasure to us.

More and more the public life into which I was being assimilated kept me from home, and when
I again resumed my active interest in the phonograph it was from a dealer's standpoint, though I had
never lost my scientific and experimental bent for the talking machine.

It was about this time, 1916-17, that the Brunswick, Balke, Kalendar Company, of Chicago,
manufacturers of high grade billiard parlor equipment and cabinet makers for the phonograph division
of Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated, of East Orange, New Jersey, began the manufacture and assembly
of complete phonograph units. At approximately the same time, they placed upon the market
Brunswick records, which at once met with considerable success. Several factors must be taken into
consideration to account for this: first, the records were recorded quite well; secondly, the price was
fixed at pre-war levels, for popular selections seventy-five cents each, whereas Victor and Columbia
had raised their popular listings to eighty-five cents; and, thirdly, record production had been curtailed
then, as now, due to the limitation of materials caused by wartime conditions. Record ingredients were
therefore scarce and hard to obtain.

A rather interesting story was told me recently in Chicago, by a high executive of a reputable
record company, of how Brunswick happened to launch out into the phonograph business.

The Brunswick Company had been making the massive cabinets for the housing of the Edison
disc phonographs. The Edison Company sent a representative to Chicago to inform the Brunswick
people that they would have to buy cabinets for fifty cents less per unit in the future. Whereupon, the
Chicago maker told the Edison representative that they were just in the process of stating to Edison,
that, effective on such and such a date, the cost per cabinet would be increased fifty cents from the
prevailing prices. This led to the cancellation of the contract between the two companies and,
incidentally, left Brunswick with a lot of cabinets on hand. Therefore, not wishing to salvage so much
material, they decided to go into the production of instruments and records. The project was continued
until the early depression, when this division of the company was leased to the American Record
Corporation. We will have cause to mention this later on. In passing, let us remember that the
Brunswick Panatrope set the pattern for the electrical phonograph of today.

Soon after the Armistice of November 11, 1918, I became quite closely associated with the
music business and was able, thereby, to study trends and markets with some accuracy. Phonographs
and records were selling and stocks were being rapidly turned over, but the phonograph industry did
not seem to be aware that a new element or challenge quite soon would have to be faced squarely. The
storm was gathering with a quick and sudden fury and the foundation of a long, honorable and well-
established business was to be shaken until there would be scarcely one stone left upon the other.
Whether the phonograph men had been warned I do not know, but one little thing at least seemed to
have been overlooked. I refer to the part which the radio played in World War I, and that various
patents had been and were being pooled for the use of our government in the emergency. RCA was
organized and held many of the vital patents on vacuum tubes and circuits. Radio was here. What of
tomorrow!
 During the winter and spring of 1921-22, little segregated groups of boys, and sometimes
grown-ups, congregated either quite by accident or on purpose to engage in most animated
conversation about something new and startling. The talk ran something like this: Did you hear that
John heard KDKA last night with a two tuber he made himself and it was clear too?

Tom told me yesterday that WJZ was heard by Henry on a single tube regenerative night
before last but, fellows, it sounds unbelievable.

But just listen here! Harry received such and such a station twenty-five miles or more away on
a home-made crystal set that I helped him make.

What type crystal did he use?

Just a good Galena with cat whisker contact, a .001 MFD fixed mica condenser, about 50 to 60
turns of 22 d.c.c wire on a cardboard container, with leads taken off about every tenth turn and soldered
to contact points with aerial or ground fastened to rotary contact switch.

This talk went on day after day and far into the night. Radio magazines were literally snatched
from newsstands and radio parts stores sprang up everywhere. At length this enthusiasm began to
awaken something inside of me. Our family had been saddened by the death of my father and life had
been hard to face without him. Here was something different, something new, challenging, interesting
to take hold of. And I must confess that this radio bugundoubtedly the most infectious bug ever to
scourge the racebit me and I had no immunity built up against it. So I became an early and fatal
victim, and even up to now the diagnosis still reveals radioitis.

In the late spring, I started my trek to the radio shops, both at home and in every city and town I
visited, even making trips to distant cities to obtain rare items such as dry cell tubes, unusual crystals
and shiny, black bakelite panels. Inductance coils, variometers, variocouplers, rheostats, fixed and
variable condensers, detector and amplifier tubes, single circuits, double circuits, regenerative and non-
regenerative sets filled my waking and my sleeping hours.

As early as the summer of 1922, static eliminators were being discussed and the industry
dreamed of frequency modulation. But, of course, they did not call it by that name. And some of us
wonder if Major Armstrong was not seeing visions of today (1944) when such marvels of F.M. are
being accomplished.

In the fall of 1922, the nation was completely out of hand and some member of most families
was either a radio nut, or had been touched by the bug. But this was good, for it had two healthful
nation-wide effects; first, it relieved the tension of a nation which had been in the throes of its worst
war; and, secondly, it was making a nation of scientists and observers out of the young men, the
experimenters and radio amateurs of the early '20's.

Radio and broadcasting equipment were crude and very imperfect, but it had public appeal and
acceptance. There were great possibilities ahead, and so capital was supplied and broadcasting began
in earnest. All this, however, is another story which the author hopes some day to relate, as he was in
the midst of the activity of those years.

The foregoing story of the entrance of radio into the American home was related with a view of
giving the reader the idea of how strongly the impact of radio fell, not only on the teenage boy but the
business and professional man as well. A comment from a trade journal of a few years back, in
discussing a toy show, is a point noteworthy of mention: The children would have enjoyed the toys
had they gotten an opportunity to see and play with them. Such was the case in most households
when the boy in the family had hooked up his first radio. I think my story of those early radio days is
typical of the experience of thousands of other men. In the light of what has been said, we shall
endeavor to analyze the phonograph situation in the early '20's, and see just why the threat of radio was
so eminent a peril.

By the middle '20's, fairly good radio receivers were being turned out with a much wider range
of reproduction than the best and most expensive phonograph of that day. Broadcasting had been
improved to a considerable degree and some good station could furnish music, entertainment and sport
news to almost every receiving set in the nation.

The fascination of indulging in listening to stations hundreds, and, on rare occasions thousands,
of miles away was an experience never to be forgotten. Then, too, there was the element of mystery
surrounding it. There was no visible means of connection between you and the broadcasterno
cables, no wires, nothing but apparently empty space as far as the eye could see. Like light waves,
these radio waves were carried at the rate of 186,300 miles per second by the so-called ether of
space, or some other means equally effective. In broadcasting studios it was no longer necessary for
musicians and singers to sit or stand in cramped or uncomfortable positions in little hot, stuffy rooms,
for they could now assume their almost normal pose before a microphone, either sitting on a table or
supported on an adjustable stand. Orchestras and bands could be arranged properly, and singers no
longer had to duck for the introduction to conserve volume or draw their heads back for high notes.

At first these microphones were very simple and followed pretty much the conventional type
then in use by the telephone companies. In other words, they were just a glorified carbon microphone,
or telephone transmitter with refinements. These microphones had thin, metal, flexible diaphragms
with high-grade carbon granules placed behind them to impart the sound vibration to the electrical
circuit. But soon there appeared more sensitive and more refined types, such, for example, as the
condenser, the crystal, the dynamic and the velocity in its various forms. Space does not allow here a
complete technical discussion of the many types and models of microphones utilized in radio
communication, but, suffice it to say, there is a microphone for almost every need on land, sea and in
the air. Audio equipment for radio receivers and loud speakers were also being greatly improved for
the wide-awake industry, with far-seeing young men at the helm, for they knew it had come to stay.
But what about the talking machine of that day? What was being done to improve it? Alas! It was in a
bad state, but brighter days were in store for it.
 Chapter Ten

THE ELECTRICAL AGE OF THE PHONOGRAPH

The early 1920's brought a real menace to the phonograph industry, with the advent of radio
broadcasting. People sat in their homes and listened to an entire musical program without the
inconvenience of changing records every three to five minutes. Added to this, radio was black
magic, mysterious! Voices and music were heard from distances up to hundreds of miles without
wires, in fact with no visible means of contact whatsoever. By 1924, radio receiving sets of the better
grade were superior in tone quality to the talking machines then in use.

The age was precarious for phonograph men. Warehouses filled to capacity, and the market had
practically dried up. People simply did not want phonographs and records any more. Radio was the
thing. With this pessimistic and dark picture in their minds, these men were doing practically nothing
to avert a complete collapse of the whole industry. Things simply had been too easy in the days of
yesteryear. In those good old days they didn't worry about tonal range of orchestra or singer. Our
minds kept on deluding us, supplying, as it were, the missing overtones and even some of the
fundamentals as well. But after getting a taste, via radio, of expanded tonal range and beauty, the
public simply refused acceptance of any less, the springs of that industry dried up, or almost dried up.
There were, however, a few of us connected with the trade who still felt, if feebly, that the phonograph
business was not done for and that something, somehow, would happen to put new life into it. And it
happened.

Instead of seeing the vast possibilities of the brighter tomorrow and realizing the great
advantages of a merger with this virile, intelligent and vivacious newcomer to the music trade, most of
the executives of the industry shied away so far that many of them never got back. The upshot of it, as
we now know, was that united we stand and build a richer tomorrow with bigger and bigger sales and
more music and entertainment for the millions.

The electronic vacuum tube developed by the radio industry was the answer to the dilemma. In
the old days, phonograph companies had tried to utilize electricity in sound recording and reproduction,
but with little success, for the reason that a suitable amplifier was out of the question and other devices
were unable to meet the exact requirements. Edison demonstrated, years earlier, the electronic action
by employing a positively charged external plate to an electric light bulb. This is known as the Edison
effect. Dr. J. A. Fleming, of England, improved the idea by putting the plate inside the tube with the
filament. This was known as the two element vacuum tube. About 1906, a young, ingenious American
scientist by the name of Dr. Lee DeForest put a third element in the Fleming valve and called it a
grid. This grid acts as a policeman, as it were, controlling traffic; the traffic here being electrons. In
other words, this negative charged grid, which incidentally is placed between the filament and the
positively charged plate, acts as a gate, or automatic control valve, to regulate the flow of these minute,
negatively charged electrons to the positively charged plate. This little tube, known as the three
electrode vacuum tube, made radio broadcasting and reception possible. The utilization of these tubes
in properly constructed and designed humless ampliers contributed to the phonograph industry's
solution for a greatly improved recording and reproduction of sound.

The credit for this amazing and far-reaching application to the phonographic art goes to
Western Electric research engineers, now Bell Telephone Laboratories. The story of its development is
one of the bright pages of theoretical science bringing to an entire industry the very life-giving
transfusion necessary to make it live and grow.
 It happened like this: A group of research workers under J. B. Maxfield employed principles of
telephone technique to show how the use of electricity could be employed to practical advantage in
recording and reproducing phonograph records. Voice vibrations were converted into electrical
impulses just as in a telephone transmitter. These weak pulses were then passed through an amplifier
and thence to the recording stylus or graver. A range from thirty to five thousand five hundred cycles
could be cut in the wax master, whereby in the old acoustic method, three hundred and fifty to three
thousand cycles was about the limit of the system. The range is steadily being widened, and records of
the future bid fair to be even more lovely than our best of today.

In the recording method above described, the performer can assume his natural position before a
microphone. Members of large orchestras can be arranged as they should in spacious music halls.
Sounds reflected from the studio walls blend naturally into the performance as they should. All this
makes a record lifelike.

These electrically recorded records, with their greatly increased tonal range and added volume,
must have a newly designed phonograph on which to be played, as the old acoustic models were utterly
inadequate to meet these additional demands. The answer came in the form of an unusual, and most
extraordinary, acoustical reproducing phonograph. It was designed by Western Electric's H. C.
Harrison. The greater tonal range and quality was possible by the discovery of the fact that an
exponentially tapered horn permitted the passage of much lower frequencies than former acoustical
instruments, the horns of which were designed in the main without rhyme or reason. This new
instrument was later called the orthophonic' and was sold by this name under the Victor trademark.
The Columbia Company christened their new sound reproducer the Viva-tonal which means lifelike
itself. To give the reader a more complete picture of this advance in design and the reason for the
superb tone, the following comments and explanations will be timely:

Improved tone chambers and sound boxes were introduced in all orthophonic models. These
were made from exact scientific knowledge of how sound waves travel, how the original form is
affected by meeting obstacles of various kinds. And mathematical formulae were developed which
were the basis of new principles of design. Amongst these is the phenomenon of what electrical
engineers call matched impedance. In simple language, matched impedance means the even
distribution of impediments to make the way smooth for the passage of an electric current or sound
vibrations, opening up roads and laying track, so to speak, leveling hills and hollows, tunneling through
rocks or deftly steering around them, bridging gaps and making turns.

Another authority compares it, more accurately perhaps, to the clearing out of a river,
obstructed from its source to to its mouth, which, as nature left it, would be filled with snares and
shoals and sharp currents and back waters and eddies perpetually picking up mud and depositing filth
and re-depositing it in new places. Matched impedance blasts out protruding rocks, pulls up snares,
takes out sand bars, rounds the sharp curves and makes the sides and bottom of the stream so regular
and so well proportioned at every point that the whole current passes through smoothly and with
uniform speed, every wave retaining its original form and shape. The first tone chambers
experimentally produced were straight and, for best results, had to be much longer than any that had
been used theretofore in a cabinet talking machine. By an ingenious method of curving and folding the
tone chamber, dividing and re-uniting its passages, engineers were able to reduce it to an over-all
length, breadth and depth adaptable to the size of the average phonograph cabinet.

When this had been done, quantity manufacture of these newly improved instruments was
commenced, and in late 1925 they were introduced to the public, becoming immediately a tremendous
commercial success.

Shortly after the appearance of these greatly improved acoustical reproducers, the development
of radio broadcasting and reception led to the manufacture of instruments which included radio
receiving sets of the most advanced type. At about the same time, another kind of phonograph
instrument was introduced to the public which Brunswick called the Panatrope. Victor called their
electrical reproducer the Electrola. This type of instrument employs an electrical reproducing
system, in some ways analogous to the electrical recording system. The needle which follows the
record groove is held in a device called a pick-up. It is pivoted like the tone arm on a talking
machine. The vibrations of the needle produce weak electrical pulsations which are conducted by
wires to an amplifier unit, very much like those used in radio receivers and using vacuum amplifying
tubes. The current from the amplifier operates the loud speaker, which reproduces sound from the
record. In this type of instrument, there is the great advantage and special feature that the volume can
be easily controlled to produce the faintest whisper, or the full intensity of an orchestra.

There are no manufacturing secrets more carefully guarded than those worked out by the
research laboratories of our American corporations. The radio, talking films and electric sound
recording made their appearance in rapid succession in the early 1920's. All these marvelous
inventions are based on the vacuum tube.

Western Electric engineers had added another bright chapter to their achievement by solving the
problem of talking films and electrically recorded discs. It was evident to these research workers that
acoustically recorded sound had reached the limit of progress. It is to be remembered that the top
frequencies were Triple High C, 2,088 vibrations per second, and the low remained at E, 164 vibrations
per second. Voices and instruments, especially stringed instruments, were confined rigidly within these
boundaries, although the average human ear receives from 30 to 15,000 vibrations per second, and
musical sounds range from 60 to 8,000 vibrations per second. The new method of electric recording
encompassed this range, and more. A whisper 50 feet away reflected sound, and even the atmosphere
of a large concert hall could be recorded. These things heretofore were unbelievable.

The unusual and fascinating story of this unusual, revolutionary sound recording system on
which the Western Electric people were secretly at work, is interestingly related by Mr. F. W. Gaisberg
in his recently published book, THE MUSIC GOES ROUND. We quote Mr. Gaisberg:

One of the most alert of talking machine personages of that day was the old pioneer, Frank
Kapps, inventor and associate of Edison. Like a good general, Lewis Sterling retained Kapps as a scout
and adviser, receiving from him regular reports on the industry in America. He and his friend, Russell
Hunting, were then in charge of the Path Recording Plant in New York City and to this plant the
Western Electric people arranged to send their wax records for processing. Kapps and Hunting were
curious enough to play over the sample pressings before sending them to the Western Electric people.
What they heard coming from the records took them completely by surprise. For the first time, they
heard sibilants emerge from the trumpet, loud and hissing!

Lewis Sterling received from Kapps sample pressings of the electrical recordings (how these
were obtained was never disclosed) and a letter worded in the most urgent terms. Part of the news
intimated that the wealthy Victor Company was negotiating with Western Electric for the exclusive
rights in the new process. This decided Sterling and he sailed on Boxing Day on the Mauretania,
cabling to delay matters until his arrival. The truth was that a draft contract for the exclusive use of the
system had been in the hands of the Victor Company for over a month, but owing to the illness of E. R.
Johnson, their chairman, it was still unsigned when Lewis Sterling arrived in New York.

Lewis Sterling put in a busy week and hammered away so convincingly at the Western Electric
on the fallacy of granting a monopoly of their valuable process to one corporation, that they withdrew
their proposals to the Victor Company. That outcome was a victory for Lewis Sterling, as both
companies were offered a license on an equal basis.

One day in the autumn of 1924, I received a telephone call. It was from Russell Hunting who
had just arrived at the Hotel Imperial, Russell Square. He said, 'Fred, we are all out of jobs. Come
down here and I'll show you something that will stagger you.'

When I reached his rooms he swore me to secrecy before playing the records. They were
unauthorized copies of the Western Electric experiments and, as Hunting predicted, he saw that from
now on any talking machine company which did not have this electric recording system would be
unable to complete with it. Lewis Sterling has since told me that this was his conclusion as well. He
added that it was the one thing, after two years of slump, that the record industry needed to rescue it
from ruin.

Emile Berliner, on his last visit to England in 1935, told me he was responsible for passing on
to the Victor Company the information about the Western Electric's experiments in electric recording.
This led to their opening up negotiations to acquire the rights. When passing through New York City,
he happened to pay a visit to the Western Electric Laboratory to renew acquaintance with his former
colleagues of telephone days. While there, they demonstrated to him their experiments in electrical
sound recording.
 Chapter Eleven

THE STORY OF THE PHONOGRAPH RECORD

Very few of us have ever stopped to think of what a marvelous creation a disc record really is,
how wonderfully and accurately it has been made. Times without number we have picked up these
shiny black records ten or twelve inches in diameter with a small hole in the center to fit the turntable
spindle of our phonograph. Their flat-mirror glossy smooth surfaces, with wavy lines running spirally
to within about three inches of the center, present one of the most accurate and precise products of
modern industry. This magic disc may have engraved upon its sides an immortal speech by an eminent
statesman or a glorious symphony with all its shades of harmonic color schemes, which give it a place
in the hearts of music lovers the world over. With such an apparently simple object as this disc in our
hands, let us for a few minutes review its all but miraculous conception, birth and development into a
phonograph record to be sold at a nominal price over the counter.

First, as to the recording of phonograph records: Records are made by engraving the record
groove upon the surface of a disc of waxlike material. The so-called wax disc is first prepared with a
mirror-like surface, using a highly polished cutting blade made of sapphire. This disc is then placed
upon the turntable of a recording machine. The recording machine carries a sapphire cutting stylus,
which is mounted upon a magnetic recorder which receives the electrical current from microphones,
operating through powerful amplifiers, and this electrical recorder controls the movement of the
sapphire cutting stylus. The stylus is set to cut a groove of uniform depth upon the wax disc, so as to
produce the spiral groove. Under the influence of the amplifying apparatus the electrical recorder
responds to all sounds which go into the microphone and cause the groove to be made in a zigzag line
corresponding exactly to these sounds.

After the music has been recorded upon this wax disc, the surface of the disc is given coating of
graphite or bronze powder to make it current conducting. The wax disc is then immersed in a plating
bath and given a plating of copper approximately 1/32 inch thick or more. When the plating operation
has been completed, the copper plate is lifted from the surface of the wax and properly trimmed and
mounted so as to produce records. This copper plate, of course, is a negative or the reverse of the wax
from which it was made, and where the music was in grooves on the wax, it is now in ridges. This
copper plate, or matrix, as it is known, may be suitably nickelled and used for the pressing of records,
or copies may be made and used. Quite frequently, a mother in turn is used to make other masters or
stampers, which are utilized in the presses to make our commercial records; the original matrix being
filed and preserved for future use, if accident should occur to the mother and stampers.

The material for the records is a mixture of shellac, various clays and cotton fiber, which is
known as flock. The formula for commercial phonograph records varies somewhat with different
manufacturers but the principal ingredient is shellac which comes to us from India. The materials are
mixed in a heavy rolling machine which is steam heated and, when thoroughly mixed, are passed
between rolls and run out into sheets or slabs and cut into squares of suitable sizes to make the records.

The records are produced in a hydraulic press in which is mounted a pair of matrices with
suitable steam heating apparatus. First, the labels are placed with their printed faces against the
matrices, then the record material, which has in the meantime been heated upon a steam table, is placed
upon the center of the lower matrix and the pressure applied. While the record is under pressure, the
steam heat is automatically turned off, and cold water passed through the plates or dies, upon which the
matrices are mounted, so as to chill and harden the record material. The pressure is then released and
the record taken out and, after having the edge smoothed off, the record is ready for use.

The hydraulic press used in making records exerts a pressure varying from sixty to one hundred
tons according to the size of the record to be made.

Another method for making metal masters has more recently been developed and is quite in
usage now (1944), where high grade recordings such as radio transcriptions are demanded, and for
other high quality records. This method is known as gold sputtering. A twenty-four karat gold plate
the size of the wax master is placed in a water cooled vacuum chamber, and the wax master which has
been recorded is placed on a metal base. A direct high potential is established between the pure gold
plate and the metal back of the wax disc. Gold molecules flow from the anode, gold plate, to the
cathode, metal back of the wax master, and are deposited absolutely uniform on the smooth wax
surface.

Another method of accomplishing practically the same result is by chemical deposition of silver
onto the record surface. This is done under very carefully regulated conditions of humidity and
temperature. Silver nitrate is the usual basic source used for this purpose and is deposited under very
carefully supervised and controlled chemical reactions.

It can readily be seen that the recording industry is a highly specialized one and that the
manufacturing procedure is fairly complicated and involved. If the reader has followed the story of the
record step by step, a much greater appreciation will be had of his records, for they are indeed one of
the great scientific achievements of our time.
 Chapter Twelve

INSTANTANEOUS RECORDING

On May 16, 1888, Emile Berliner made this prophecy before the Franklin Institute of
Philadelphia:

In each city there will be at least one office having a gramophone recorder with all the
necessary outfits. There will be an acoustic cabinet, or acousticon, containing a very large funnel or
other sound concentrator, the narrow end of which ends in a tube leading to the recording diaphragm.
At the wide opening of the funnel will be placed a piano, and back of it a semi-circular wall for
reflecting the sound into the funnel. Persons desirous of having their voices taken will step before the
funnel and, upon a signal, sing or speak or they may perform upon an instrument. While they are
waiting, the plate will be developed, and when it is satisfactory, it is turned over to the electro-plater or
to the molder in charge, who will make as many copies as desired.

Prominent singers, speakers or performers may derive an income from royalties on the sale of
their phonautograms; and valuable plates may be printed and registered to protect against unauthorized
publication.

Mr. Berliner goes on to say that such collections of phonautograms will be of great value and
comfort.

The voices of dear relations and friends long departed and the utterances of great men and
women who lived centuries before, as well as the radiant songs of many fine singers, these and many
other recordings will be valued as keepsakes in families and by collectors.

It is interesting to note further that Mr. Berliner saw other used for the local studio, some of
which are now common practice, for instance:

Last will, completely registered with the testator's own voice, and important testimony can be
sent from afar and read in Court, and the voice so produced can be testified to by friends present.

Languages can be taught by having a good elocutionist speak classical recitations, and sell
copies of his voice to students. In this department alone and that of teaching elocution, generally, an
immense field is to be filled by the gramophone.

Addresses, congratulatory, political or otherwise, can be delivered by proxy so loudly that the
audience will be almost as if conscious of the speaker's presence.

A singer unable to appear at a concert may send her voice and be represented as per program,
and conventions will listen to distant sympathizers, be they thousands of miles away.

Future generations will be able to condense within the space of twenty minutes a tone picture
of a single lifetime. Five minutes of a child's prattle, five of the boy's exultations, five of the man's
reflections, and five from the feeble utterances of the death bed! Will it not be like holding communion
even with immortality?

Even the best informed men of the phonograph industry of Berliner's day, and for many years
succeeding these remarks, no doubt thought the ideas somewhat fantastic, as there was no very
satisfactory method developed to duplicate records until sometime later.

Up to the present time there are but two materials from which master records can be made for
commercial purposes. Both exist in many forms. The first of these developed was wax, which in
reality is a metallic soap. We have considered this material elsewhere in this book and have described
the rather expensive and complicated laboratory methods required to prepare and record the original on
its surface. It must be evident to the reader that none but the finest equipped factories possess such
equipment and, therefore, the recording art was of necessity limited to such manufacturers.

In the early '30's, some feeble efforts at instantaneous recording were attempted. On a bright
winter's morning in early January, 1931, I made my first acquaintance with one of these efforts. It had
been many years since my hobby had its birth with some of Edison's primitive horn recording
equipment designed for use on the cylinder phonographs.

During the fall of 1930, RCA Victor had placed upon the market a limited number of radio-
phonograph-recorder combinations, Model R-57, and it was one of these that I carefully examined. So
far as was visible to me, the radio-phonograph was of the conventional design, though they were very g
good instruments and constructed of the finest material and sturdily built. The feature of the instrument
which fascinated me and held me fast in its spell was the recorder unit. It was quite simple and the
recordings disappointing to those who expected too much at this early stage of development.

The recorder utilized power supplied by the radio amplifying system, and recordings were made
directly by speaking, singing or playing into the microphone. Portions of programs could be taken by
means of the radio directly off the air. The various circuits for this instrument were made available by
means of an ingenious switching arrangement made possible by a control box, which permitted each
unit of the instrument to be used by the turn of only one knob.

The microphone, furnished as standard equipment, was of the hand type, single button, having
two hundred ohms resistance. It was fairly sensitive, but Universal designed a special home recording
Handi-Mike, Model 50, which was much more satisfactory for use with this instrument.

The pick-up head was used also as a cutting head, which we know now not to be good practice.
The function of a pick-up head is just what the name impliesto pick up the mechanical energy of the
record and translate these impulses into electrical pulsations, which are passed into the amplifier. The
cutting head, of course, works in reverse. It is readily seen that a compromise was necessary in the
pick-up employed by one of these combinations and, as compromises are usually none too successful in
such equipment, the practice was early abandoned.

The recorder unit in these early radio-phonograph-recorder combinations was pretty inadequate
compared with today's models. They might be compared in performance to an early crystal radio
receiver in contrast to today's multiple tube radio receiving sets. However, as in the case of the early
crystal set, so with the early recorder; in the hands of the expert and patient, unusual results could be
obtained, considering the apparatus and its many limitations.

Most of those first recorders were designed only to accommodate pre-grooved, composition
recording discs, but a little later pre-grooved aluminum was also used with some success. The first
blanks were only six inches in diameter, but a somewhat superior ten inch composition blank was
placed on the market in the winter season of 1932-33. The recording needle employed was for the
most part a blunt steel needle, although a sapphire was also developed for the above type of recording
disc.

The pre-grooved, composition blanks had one distinct advantage. They were extremely quiet in
operation, so far as surface noise went. The grave disadvantage, however, was that the volume proved
insufficient for practical record enjoyment. About the same time as these composition discs appeared,
a few manufacturers placed on the market a pre-grooved, aluminum disc. This blank had the advantage
of loudness and fairly good range for those days, but the scratch level was too great for enjoyment
unless an especially designed thorn or cactus needle was employed for the play-back and some sort of
lubricant used on the surface before recording. Quite often this consisted of carbon tetrachloride and
paraffin, which mixture gave to the record surface a fine waxy film, which reduced the noise level quite
noticeably.

Ungrooved aluminum discs and lead screws soon replaced the pre-grooved record blanks and
the results were much better. The recording and pressing of the groove was done at the same timeand
the range and modulation were far better. In both types of aluminum discs, a considerable amount of
weight had to be applied to the cutting head; and in the case of the ungrooved blank, from ten to
fourteen ounces or more was often utilized by means of small flat pieces of iron or horseshoe shaped
ones, depending on the type of cutting head the recordist preferred. Remember that the grooves were
not cut in these metal discs. The groove was made by pressing the needle point into the smooth,
mirror-like surface, simply creasing it, but extreme care was necessary not to tear or injure the metal.
The author obtained some very fine recordings by carefully observing all details. Of the then
commercial amplifiers available, the Loftin-White seemed most satisfactory for this work. The hum
level in these units was quite low and, all in all, this type of audio-amplifier seemed quite well
constructed for recording work in those days.

The so-called acetate discs made their first appearance about 1932, and when the writer
visited the Universal Microphone Company's plant, in 1934, purchase was made of some of these early
attempts at making a better recording disc. These were little thin discs of plastic without a supporting
base, and the course grain of the material caused a very high scratch level. In a short time, however,
the Universal Microphone Company brought out their famous Silveroid Disc, which was a greatly
improved blank and resembled in many respects our present instantaneous recording discs.

From 1932 up to the present (1944), much progress has been made both in instantaneous discs
and recording apparatus. By 1938-39, recorders and discs were becoming quite abundant and each
year, until war was declared in December of 1941, saw larger and larger sales of such equipment.

Cellulose acetate and vynal acetate are still extensively used for the making of recording blanks.
The principal ingredient in many instantaneous discs, however, is a cellulose nitrate. The better grade
instantaneous master discs have almost supplanted the use of the large cumbersome wax masters,
formerly made use of by most of the leading record processors.

In the acetate blank the recording stylus actually cuts out a fine threadapproximately the size
of a human hairduring the recording process, and the recorder must either have an overhead
mechanical lead screw mechanism or one that functions from below the turntable. Some of the later
instruments permit records to be cut both from the outside in and from the inside out. However, the
merits or demerits of the various recording systems is not within our present purpose and several works
recently have appeared on the subject of making good recordings. (Note.--HOME RECORDING
MADE EASY and THE RECORDISTS HANDBOOK, both by the author of this work.)
 The instruments for recording vary from small, inexpensive, portable ones to the large and
beautiful consoles containing radio, phonograph and a good recording unit. The latter have the
advantage of being capable of picking up radio programs and recording at least parts of them at the
same time the listener is enjoying the programs. Some of these better instruments have a heavy
turntable capable of recording either at 78 r.p.m. or the transcription speed of 33 1/3 r.p.m.

Home and semiprofessional recording has always had a popular and public appeal, for after all
who is there amongst us who does not wish to have a recording made of this voice or that of his child
or other loved one. Instantaneous recording makes this possible, for we took the art from the
laboratory with its expensive and complicated processes and simplified it, and brought instruments
within the range of almost anyone who happened to be fascinated by recording technique and willing to
give it a little time and serious study.

Many private recording studios have sprung up over the country and are fulfilling a long felt
want. Musicians, business and professional men are finding this service most helpful in numerous
ways. Many of the recordings are equal to, and in some instances surpass, the commercial shellac
record. It should be remembered, however, that greater care must be exercised in playing these
records, as the record coating can easily be damaged by needle scratch. The future looks bright for the
further developing of this field for both amateur and professional recordists.
 Chapter Thirteen

THE TALKING BOOK MACHINE FOR THE BLIND

Although the Talking Book machine for the blind made its appearance in the early '30's, its
invention really dates back to a day in a New Jersey laboratory, in 1877, when Thomas A. Edison
completed his first phonograph. At that time Edison predicted with prophetic foresight the use of the
phonograph as a means of reading for the blind. It seems strange that this fact has been so tardily
recognized and utilized by workers and educators in charge of, and entrusted with the care and training
of, the sightless.

Of the upwards of two hundred thousand blind persons in the United States, it has been found
that only about twenty percent read Braille or any other embossed system. This appalling situation left
a vast majority of our blind population without any means of reading, and thus they were deprived of
the world's best literature. The American Foundation for the Blind, under the able directorship of Dr.
Robert B. Irwin, himself blind, decided to do something about it, and in the early '30's two years of
intensive research and experimentation on the Talking Book record were begun. Success crowned
these efforts. A long playing record was developed, which is much lighter in weight than the
commercial phonograph record and more durable. This long playing record, originally invented by
Frank L. Dyer, formerly with the Edison Phonograph Company, had been placed on the market in
limited quantities to be used on certain models of expensive dual speed motored phonographs. But the
venture was none too successful, as these records proved unable to withstand the rough treatment given
them by the average user. Much credit is due, therefore, to the research engineers of the Foundation
who have brought this type of record to such perfection. The future will doubtless witness a record
undreamed of now, as every effort is being made to incorporate new discoveries in record making
technique. The blind of the country are deeply grateful to the Carnegie Corporation and that prominent
philanthropic New Yorker who supplied the funds to bring this work for the blind to fruition.

Before discussing the sound record book, let us examine the machine that reads these books to
the blind. The physical appearance of a Talking Book machine, a sound record reproducer for the
blind, resembles in most particulars the average portable electric phonograph. The instrument is
primarily designed, however, to reproduce speech. Many of the instruments have triple speed
turntables, namely 78 r.p.m., the speed for commercial records, and 33-1/3 r.p.m., the speed at which
Talking Book records are played. Some machines have a motor control that will slow the turntable
down to 24 r.p.m., the adopted speed of the National Institute for the Blind, London, England, which
sponsors the manufacture of such sound reading records for the blind of the British Empire.

The component parts of the instrument are as follows: an electric motor equipped with a
magnetic pick-up and a twelve inch turntable, an audio-amplifier, a loud speaker and a cabinet in which
the above parts are housed.

The author has been quite closely associated with the progress of the Talking Book from the
early '30's. I received one of the first models as a gift from my sister who had been my constant reader
from childhood. She at once recognized its worth, possibilities and pleasure to me, and her evaluation
has been more than justified. Little did I realize on that memorable day in November, 1934, when I
unpacked my Talking Book machine and started to read my first sound book, that within a very brief
period I was to be appointed to to take charge of the Talking Book project for the state of Kansas. This
phase of my work is one which has brought constant joy and pleasure to me, for I know from first-hand
knowledge and experience that nothing has ever brought so much satisfaction, profit, joy and
entertainment to those in dark land as have the Talking Books, that come regularly to our homes to
comfort, to enlighten and make glad days which otherwise, for many at least, would often have been
spent in idleness and wishful thinking.

The Talking Book machine is the Aladdin's lamp for the blind, as it is a light to brighten the
path of the thousands who sit in darkness. It brings the treasures of the fountains of wisdom from the
world of yesterday, and of the world of today, with all the multiple ramifications of intermingling
cultures, and problems being attacked by men and women from north, south, east and west. Black
men, yellow men, brown men and white speak to us in our living rooms by means of the Talking Book
record. Not only their ideas and proposals can be heard from their own lips, but their innermost souls
are revealed to us through their voices.

Again, this little magic box can transform the hours of the blind into a church and, in the
friendly warmth and piece of home, we can hear a sermon by one of the world's renowned divines,
giving us guidance for a richer and fuller life.

From divine service we can go to the theater and occupy a front row seat or a box on the stage,
as it were, and we can have this with little or no effort, for we neither have to make reservation for
tickets nor go out into the inclement weather to attend the play.

Not not since, I had the privilege of spending a few days at the Talking Book studios of the
American Foundation for the Blind, New York City, and met many whose names are household words
to sound record readers: John Knight, whose flawless diction and natural unaffected style has endeared
him to many of us; J. O. Kleber, genial Dutchman from Pennsylvania, able chief sound engineer of the
Foundation, the result of whose patient researches have enriched every reader; William Barbour, who
never seems to lose his reserve and whose pleasing voice is sometimes heard on the Topics records;
and Mr. Charles Ritter, who mechanical skill and knowledge guarantee many of our finished master
discs.

As I sat at the reader's desk in the recording studio with the microphone hanging just in the front
of me, my thoughts naturally dwelt on the bards, statesmen, divines and sages who had sat there and
spoken so helpfully and graciously to us by means of the magic blank disc. In the presence of so great
a cloud of witnesses, who had been there in this sacred spot, I could not help but say to myself that
upon us hath a great light shined. I read the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes and wondered as I began,
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,' if the writer could only have had this medium of
transmission at his command, what a difference it might have made in the conduct of life of the many
generations which followed. As has aptly been said, the phonograph is a resurrection, for it now brings
many voices to us who have been stilled in death long years ago.

Let us now go back to the year 1931, for in that year Congress passed an act, commonly known
as the Pratt-Smoot Law, which authorized an appropriation of $100,000 annually to the Library of
Congress for books for the adult blind. These books were to be placed in libraries serving large
regions, such as areas often including several states. There are at present twenty-seven such libraries
for the blind distributed with some relationship to density of population over the country from
Massachusetts to Hawaii. After the successful development of the Talking Book, members of
Congressconspicuous among whom were Robert F. Wagner, Reed Smoot, Ruth Pratt, Caroline
O'Day and Kent Kellerinterested themselves in having the appropriation increased, until by 1942 the
annual amount had reached $350,000.
 Of this sum, $250,000 was alloted to the publication of books on sound reproduction records
(Talking Books) and $100,000 for books in raised characters.

As we know the Talking Book today, it consists of a set of records on which is recorded much
of what is rewarding in classic and contemporary literature. Each side of the twelve inch record plays
for fifteen or sixteen minutes and it takes from fifteen to eighteen discs to record an average-sized
book. This means that the book has a reading time of approximately nine hours. When one gets away
from the average length book, however, one encounters different figures. Victor Hugo's LES
MISERABLES runs to 104 double-faced discs and is one of the longest works yet recorded by the
American Foundation for the Blind. Of more recent books is Margaret Mitchell's GONE WITH THE
WIND, which takes eighty records. Voices mean much to blind persons, and studios producing Books
on Sound Records felt that the blind could gain something of the personality, as well as the meaning,
which certain authors wished to impart if their actual voices could be heard on the Talking Book
records. Some of the famous personages who voices we have as frontispieces to Talking Books are
William Beebe, Stephen Vincent Bent, Raymond Ditmars, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Archibald
MacLeish, Thomas Mann, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt and William Shirer. There are also those who
have been kind enough to read complete works. Among them are Alexander Woollcott, Jan Struther,
Dr. John Ho. Finley, Phyllis Moir, John Kieran and Christopher Morley.

The readers regularly employed in the recording of Talking Books are men and women of
professional experience in either state or radio work, sometimes both, who have been carefully selected
for their pleasing voices, diction and interpretive skill. Some of them have read Talking Books almost
from the beginning and are well known and eagerly awaited personalities in the homes of blind
listeners all over the country, just as we wait to hear the voices of our favorite radio announcers.

The Talking Book Studio of the American Foundation for the Blind has introduced incidental
music and sound effects in many of their records, which has added much to their listeners' enjoyment.
The recording of Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL offered an initial opportunity, and the strains of
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen introduced to the blind that well-loved book. In recording Stephen
Vincent Bent's poem, JOHN BROWN'S BODY, the Foundation went a step further and used a
number of voices to interpret various sections of the book, as well as incidental music of the Civil War
period to enhance the book's atmosphere. The Salvation Army Territorial Staff Band volunteered to act
as background music for Vachal Lindsay's poem General William Booth Enters Heaven, from
selected poems by that author. The recording of Walt Disney's SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN
DWARFS was made, with Disney's permission, from the sound track of the film with descriptive
narrative interpolated. Two of the most remarkable sets of records which have ever been attempted are
Wild Birds and Their Calls and Birds of the North Woods. These were prepared by the noted
ornithologist, Albert R. Brand, and recorded by the American Foundation for the Blind, with actual
examples of bird calls inserted to illustrate the text.

Very early, many of the plays of Shakespeare were recorded, and they proved quite popular.
Sometime later, with the encouragement and financial support of the Library of Congress, the
Foundation decided to take the next logical step and produce the plays in full with complete casts of
Broadway players, period music and all necessary sound effects. In this field also it was fortunate
enough to engage the interest of various celebrities. Several other plays have also been recorded with
considerable success.

Although the number of Talking Book titles is small, as compared with ink print books, the list
is fairly comprehensive, ranging from the Psalms of David to the stories of Irvin S. Cobb. It takes in
the standard works of fiction, of poetry, of biography, as well as books on history, travel and the
fascinating tales of science, as told by Sir James Jeans, William Beebe, John Burroughs and Dr. Robert
Millikan.

When institutions for the education of blind children realized that the Talking Book had a place
as an education medium, the American Printing House for the Blind, in Louisville, Kentucky, put in
operation a recording studio to supply the demand for such reading material. The facilities of the
recording studios of the American Foundation for the Blind and the American Printing House have
always been at the disposal of the Library of Congress.

The study of the Talking Book as an educational medium in the instruction of blind children, as
carried on by the Talking Book Educational Project of the American Foundation for the Blind, was
made possible through grants from the Carnegie Corporation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. There
are two main objectives, the Project maintains, for the use of the Talking Book in education: first, it
functions as a supplementary reading medium, compensating for the slowness of Braille reading;
secondly, it contributes to the enrichment of teaching. In accordance with these aims, a Talking Book
library of children's literature is being built up. In many of these Talking Books, sound effects have
been introduced and dramatizations are used in order to give blind children some of the stimulation that
seeing children get from picture illustrations in their books.

As described elsewhere, Talking Book records require for their reproduction a special type of
phonograph, which is sold at cost of manufacture by the American Foundation for the Blind. It is,
however, sad to relate that most blind people are not in a financial situation which permits them to meet
the cost of such reproducers, even when manufactured and sold without profit. The Works Projects
Administration was prevailed upon to set up a project for the manufacture of such machines under the
supervision of the American Foundation for the Blind and sponsored by the Library of Congress. The
machines are the property of the Library of Congress and are alloted to the various states in the
proportion that their general population bears to the total population of the United States. A local
agency in each state (usually the State Department for the Blind) takes the responsibility for
maintaining and lending these machines to blind people free of charge. The writer of this book
administers this project for the state of Kansas, and a very effective program for services and
distribution been initiated. Incidentally, information regarding the distributing agencies in the
respective states will be gladly supplied by the American Foundation for the Blind, 15 West 16th Street,
New York 11, New York. Under the above project, over twenty-two thousand Talking Book machines
have been produced, five times as many as have been purchased by blind people who are in a position
to buy their own. Today, the library circulation of Talking Books exceeds that of Braille books, though
the number of titles available is less than one-tenth of those in all embossed types.

Most publishers have shown willingness to cooperate with the Talking Book in granting
permission, either free or at a nominal charge, for the recording of works for which they hold the
copyright, with the strict understanding that the records are solely for the use of the blind. For the
purpose of the Talking Book, the Library of Congress has defined as blind a person suffering from a
defect of vision which makes it impossible or unsafe for him to read ordinary print books.
 Chapter Fourteen

DEPRESSION AND REORGANIZATION

Twice before 1931-33, the phonograph industry had experienced near ruin and chaos. The first
of these has been pretty well covered in the stories hereto related of the early '90's and the first few
years of the Twentieth Century. As you will remember, after the novelty of the new sound
reproducing toy, the so-called gramophone or phonograph, had worn off, the three companies
engaged in the manufacture of the new marvel found themselves in dire straits for three principal
reasons.

First, the instruments, as they then stood, were utterly incapable of meeting the exacting
requirements demanded by the public, and as a reproducing musical instrument, they were a sorry
excuse indeed. Reproducers were poorly designed and were little more than squawkers. The records
were soft and unstable, whether made of tin foil or wax. The turntable or cylinder, as the case might
be, had to be operated by turning a crank, which naturally caused reproduction to be uneven, or with
'wows in it. Horns were unknown equipment for these early talking machines and the employment of
ear tubes for listening purposes was, of course, none too satisfactory.

Secondly, the companies were in a bad way financially. Columbia was practically bankrupt
until Edward D. Easton came to the rescue with money and organizing ability. Emile Berliner had
spent most of his earnings received from his inventions on the microphone, which was to be used as
standard equipment by the Bell Telephone Company. Nevertheless, help was forthcoming from certain
gentlemen who were ultimately convinced that Mr. Berliner's gramophone did have a future.

Thirdly, and perhaps the worst deterrent to the advancement of the industry, was the fact that
the whole or entire art of sound recording and reproduction was tied up in knots due to patent litigation,
which we mentioned in an earlier chapter. Ultimately, however, with patents pooled, funds obtained
and the instruments civilized and made into real musical instruments instead of monstrosities by putting
spring drive motors in them to propel the shaft of the mandrel or turntable, and with horns added to
replace ear tubes and reproducers refined and greatly improved, as well as record materials being made
practical and usable by phonograph owners, the situation in the industry rapidly improved.

The names of famous artists were beginning to appear in record catalogues and a vigorous
advertising campaign was launched. The phonograph industry was destined to have a phenomenal
growth for almost the next quarter of a century. But it forgot to read the signs of the times and to keep
up with modern scientific improvements, which could so easily and effectively have been incorporated
into machines and records, if only the industry had not become self-satisfied and well fed.

In 1923 and 1924, business dropped off alarmingly. Radio broadcasting had come to stay.
Warehouses were full of merchandise but nobody was buying it. The companies were none too
friendly disposed to the young upstart radio, but what was to be done about it? The answer came
from without, from, as we have already observed, Western Electric, now Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Whether welcome news or not, their breath-taking discovery had to be countered with. Looking back
from here, we now know what an impetus electrical recording and the new improved acoustical and
later electrical reproducers gave the staggering industry. Sales skyrocketed and all was well till that
black day in our nation's history when all business seemed to suffer all but total collapse. But, as one
writer put it, what seemed worse about the phonograph was that it appeared to be irreparably gone.
 We can all too vividly recall that 1931-33 were bad years for steel, railroads, confections, as
well as phonographs and records. Much was to happen to the industry and in the industry, before the
dark night was to be dispelled and light and prosperity return for phonograph men.

In the late '20's, sales had soared to a peak of $250,000,000, and a record production of
100,000,000 discs. The gross for the industry probably reached in the neighborhood of $125,000,000.
During the worst of the depression, record sales dropped to as low as 10,000,000 discs and gross to
about $5,000,000. It looked very bad and most of the executives shook their heads sadly. But again,
all of a sudden like a bolt out of the blue, record sales began to shoot up[ by leaps and bounds and the
public just seemed unable to get them fast enough.

Let us now examine what had been going on behind the scenes. RCA Victor, formerly The
Victor Talking Machine Company, had always been in the lead, accounting for fifty per cent or more of
the sales. In 1926, Eldridge R. Johnson had sold his interest to the bankers, and in 1928 they in turn
sold Victor Talking Machine to RCA. To them, radio was the thing and most of the new blood felt that
anyone could see that records were done for. Therefore, they did little about them and cared less. As a
consequence, recordings were not as good as formerly and the pressings, in most instances, even of the
better records, were of inferior quality.

Columbia Phonograph Company was also having a stormy time of it. In the '20's, times had
been bad enough for that company, but the beginning of the '30's was blacker still with record sales
reaching a low of about 250,000 discs. At this time, Columbia was taken over by Grigsby Grunow, but
it too was in a bad way and soon folded up, when Columbia became a part of the American Record
Corporation, which company was controlled by the consolidated film industry. Consolidated Film's
destinies were largely in the hands of H. J. Yates, whose purpose in acquiring Brunswick had been that
he thought the music for the films would be furnished by disc records. It is interesting to note here,
however, that Brunswick was leased and not sold as had previously been thought. Incidentally,
Brunswick has now passed to Columbia.

About 1937, the stocks and equipment of Columbia were purchased from the American Record
Corporation by the Columbia Broadcasting System, and the factory at Bridgeport, Connecticut, was
reconditioned and made bright and sparkling. Mr. Edward Wallerstein was chosen to head the new
organization, which was to be thenceforth known as The Columbia Recording Corporation. Mr.
Wallerstein likes good music and has a fine record collection of his own. He feels that the slump of the
business was for the most part largely the industry's fault. His aim is to steer Columbia back into
leadership and he is undoubtedly succeeding. Columbia's president feels that good music well recorded
will be a most beneficial and continuous stimulus to the business. In pursuance of this policy, many
new master works sets have been added to the growing Columbia record catalogue, and much of the
recording as well as the pressing is being done in the U.S.A. Formerly most of the recording of these
albums was done in England by British Columbia. This is the first time that Victor Red Seal records
have faced a real competitor in this country.

In 1938 and 1939, Columbia record sales were phenomenal and have continued so, although, of
course, war-time restrictions are hampering the entire record industry. Before leaving the discussion of
Columbia Recording Corporation, I wish to add that one of the most pleasant experiences of my life
was in April of 1943 when, on the morning of the twenty-third, I had the extreme pleasure of visiting
Mr. Wallerstein in his New York office.

All of my life since childhood, I had wanted to be granted the privilege of inspecting for myself
a well-equipped and properly appointed recording studio. What had been an ardent desire, a dream, the
fulfillment of which had been long awaited, was soon to come to pass and ripen into complete and
satisfactory fruition. I arrived at 799 Seventh Avenue, the address of Columbia's New York studios, at
the appointed time which had been arranged the previous day by Miss Cyst, the president's secretary.
After a very brief wait, I was courteously shown into the president's office, and the warm and friendly
greeting accorded to me by Mr. Wallerstein is one never to be forgotten. He is most charming in
manner, and is dignified and serene. His cordiality and pleasing voice put me at ease immediately.
Our discussion concerning the industry and its problems and possibilities proved of more than passing
interest and the president's helpfulness in preparing this work, especially the material on the history of
the phonograph industry of the past several years, is here gratefully acknowledged. Mr. Wallerstein
personally escorted me me through the studios and control rooms, and each piece of equipment was not
only explained, but its function in the over-all process of recording and completing a record. Another
of my life's desires had come true this day, and to Mr. Edward Wallerstein and his kind and indulgent
staff, I publicly acknowledge my thanks for making it possible of acheivement.

What was RCA Victor's role in the reconstruction era? Victor had had a house cleaning but,
doubtless prodded by some of the phonograph and record men who had withstood the purge, the RCA
Victor Division decided to give records another try. Electrical recording and reproduction had been
greatly improved and the public was beginning to want the music it wanted when it wanted it. This,
radio broadcasting could not give. Records could. Vice-president Joyce organized the Victor Record
Society and formulated a unique plan for membership. For $14.95, one could join this society and
receive a record player, which consisted of pick-up and turntable. The unit could be plugged into the
average electric radio set. In addition, some records were given and a year's subscription to the
society's monthly RECORD REVIEW, which described both classical and popular record releases.
These record players proved a great stimulus for the purchase of the new fine radio phonograph
combinations. Record sales started up and have remained good for the past several years. Many of
these combinations have automatic record changers permitting the playing of ten or twelve selections
without the necessity of changing records.

Another telling factor in this period was the widespread use of coin operated record machines,
first used in the South where they were called juke boxes.

There are probably between three hundred and five hundred thousand of these nickel-in-the-slot
machines in use today throughout the country, in village and hamlet, in town and city, in barrooms,
amusement and recreation centers, in restaurants, hotels, drug stores, dancing halls and brothels. It is
needless to say that records are made popular and often create a considerable demand for certain
numbers.

Of course, the same thing holds true with respect to radio programs. People hear some number
played by a favorite band and the record sales increase by leaps and bounds. Probably the surest and
most stable factor in the record market is the men and women whom we term music lovers. These
steady buyers of records, who are known in the trade as phonofiles, account for from twenty to thirty
per cent of the record purchase annually, from the dollar and cents standpoint. Most of them are
potential customers for the finest combinations available, combinations that are capable of a wide tonal
range and that can reproduce a record naturally and bring out what was put into it. Every new type
needle, record lubricant, and pick-up are gobbled up by these phonofiles. And this testimony is right
and true, for it is given by one who never fails to try every new gadget under the sun. The music lover
might not have bought any new records during the depression, but he kept playing what he had and
wanted more. Now he is buying more.
 You may recall that in 1927 Columbia celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of the death of
Ludwig Beethoven, and brought out several master works sets of the eminent composer's best known
symphonies. One result of this more serious side of music on discs was the establishment of the
Gramophone Shop by two young men, Mr. Tyler and Mr. Brogan, at 18 East 48th Street, New York
City. Ninety-five per cent of their record sales come from those who enjoy and prefer the better type of
music. Their ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RECORDED MUSIC, by R. D. Durrell, is a splendid contribution
to aid the record collector who takes collecting seriously and wants the best in recorded music.
Incidentally, Mr. Durrell was given a Guggenheim award to write about records.

Before closing this chapter, the history of a newcomer will prove of much interest to the reader.
The name Decca has become almost a household word overnight. Let us go back to 1934, the month
of July, to be exact. In that month, for ten long, hot days, Jack Kapp of Brunswick and E. F. Stevens of
Columbia were closeted with Mr. E. A. Lewis of British Decca. When the conference was ended, Jack
Kapp and E. F. Stevens had resigned from their respective companies and, with Milton Diamond and
others, started to organize American Decca, backed by Mr. Lewis' finances, the English name, Decca,
and the right to reprint from British masters. They organized on the belief that a thirty-five cent record
could be made to pay and that they would employ big names in the industry. (Among them is to be
found Bing Crosby.) Since 1936, Decca has been making money in spite of rising costs. No
advertising has been done since then, for the reason that the company cannot keep up with present
orders. This company supplies vast quantities of records to the juke box operators, and they
popularlize record selling by encouraging their dealers to put the records on the counter where they can
be seen and handled, and the result has been astounding even in the sales of the more serious music.

Mr. H. C. Kruse, Eastern Sales Manager of Decca, and Mr. Selmann Schulz, Western Sales
Manager of the company, were very helpful in giving the author many facts concerning modern
phonograph history and a picture of the industry with its war-time problems. Their understanding and
helpfulness has contributed much to a better understanding of the many ramifications of the industry in
the depression and reorganization.
 Chapter Fifteen

MISCELLANY

There are three methods of recording known to the art at present: recording mechanically on
wax, which has been so fully covered in this book; recording photographically on films, the technique
of which has been quite thoroughly described in the publications of the American Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences; and the method of recording magnetically on steel wire, or specially
prepared allow tape.

The former two methods require considerable processing, while the magnetic does not. It is not
in the scope of this work to go into detail concerning magnetic recording, but a brief statement on the
progress thus far made will doubtless prove of interest.

As early as 1898, Valdemar Poulsen, a Danish physicist, developed a method of magnetic

recording on wire. Poulsen's method was to record the magnetic elements lengthwise or longitudinally
and, obviously, very long wire records were necessary.

Quite recently, Marvin Camaras, of the Armour Research Foundation of Chicago, has been
working to improve the Danish professor's method and, it appears, with considerable success. Camaras
abandoned lengthwise recording and utilizes a method of recording around the center of the wire,
which he claims greatly cuts down the distorton and the length of the wire required for records.

Of course, the principle involved in either wire or metal tape recording is quite simple. A
microphone carries the voice or music to the amplifying unit, thence the current is passed through wires
to a magnetic recorder very much resembling those with which we are all familiar. The wire or tope is
passed between the pole pieces of the recorder, and the magnet element or pulses are recorded on the
wire or tape. The record thus made can be immediately played back, using the recorder or an auxiliary
magnetic unit for a pick-up, and an amplifier and loud speaker in the conventional manner.

Bell Telephone Laboratory research engineers have been working on a method of recording
magnetically on a specially prepared metal tape. The recording on this alloy is done across the tape, or
transversely. The instrument which utilizes this method is known as the mirror-phone, and much
promise is claimed for it in the teaching of speech, conference transactions and the recording or
transcribing of radio programs.

Papers and magazines have recently carried feature articles dealing with the recording on wire
and tape, and the public at large is showing quite a little interest in such investigations. Recently
General Electric announced a magnetic recorder which employs a spool of very fine wire, about the
size of a doughnut, on which a record of sixty-six minutes can be made. It seems that another use of a
practical sort has been been found of late for this type of instrument by certain branches of the Army
and Navy, especially the registering of certain information while planes are in action or on flight patrol.
Magnetic recording doubtless has many practical and scientific uses which, in due time, will be made
available to the public.

Up until quite recently, dictating machines have been very much limited in the service which
they could render, being for the most part suitable only for the office executive and his stenographer for
dictating and transcribing letters and simple memoranda.
 The instruments are large and cumbersome and are in three units, namely, the dictating machine
proper, the transcriber and the shaver. It can, therefore, be readily apparent that such apparatus is
totally unsuited for portability. Hence the service possible from such apparatus cannot and does not
meet many needs of modern business practice.

About 1940, certain manufacturersnoteworthy among them being Sound-Scriber, of New

Haven, Connecticut, and Frank Rieber, Incorporated, of Los Angeles, Californiabrought out
electrical dictating and transcribing machines which are not only practical for many business
requirements but are portable as well.

Both of these instruments have been so designed that business executives, professional men and
many government departments are finding them almost indispensable in many activities where speed
and accuracy are so vital, and where time enters as such an important factor.

Extremely sensitive microphones are standard equipment and, either in dictation or

conversation, accurate recording is registered, whether the words of the operator are directed into the
orifice of the microphone or his head turned to one side. Both hands are freed for handling papers or
consulting files, and the whole scheme is one of perfect ease and naturalness, making for efficiency and
conservation of time with a far less number of hampering details while doing the job at hand.

These instruments are found to be so reliable and accurate that many corporations are providing
them to their field men that they may use them out on the spot where exact eyewitness reporting is so
essential. Entire proceedings of conferences can be recorded with a minimum of fuss and bother, as the
instruments will run a long time without attention and maintain the desired volume without resetting.

Busy doctors and hospitals are finding that physicians' findings can be registered in his own
words in a microphone hanging directly in front of the doctor and just above the work table, and thus
an accurate and audible record is obtained while the work is being done.

Attorneys can take depositions wherever desired. The portable feature enables them to be
employed in cars and airplanes, and no doubt many additional services will be found for them as time
goes on.

Another important feature of such equipment is the economy in operation and the little space
necessary to file the recorded material. On the Rieber instrument, a full hour's transactions can be
placed on a permanent record, costing about twenty cents. On the Sound-Scriber, fifteen minutes of
material can be played on one side of a seven inch disc. The discs are wafer thin, indestructible, can be
bent, are mailable and fileable, as well as maintaining a permanent record.

What is this substance that has all these advantages? It is a modern plastic which is called
vynalite. It is about .010 inch thick and is engraved by a diamond or sapphire stylus, a process
which, early amateur recordists will recall, was employed on aluminum blanks Rieber uses what they
term a constant groove speed method, which they claim has considerable advantage in this type of
record making.

In the summer of 1940, a new type of phonograph was announced by the Philco Corporation of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The instrument is known as the Philco Photo-Electric Phonograph and is
quite a striking innovation in phonographs previously described.
 Thomas A. Edison once remarked that if anything had gone for a number of years without
improvement, it was time to do something about it. Philco engineers took this statement as their cue
when they decided that, owing to the revived interest in recorded music, they should try to improve
present instruments. Said Mr. David Grimes, chief engineer of the company, In view of the total
absence of any basic improvement in the phonograph since its invention by Edison, something should
be done about it. The research department of Philco, therefore, started living with phonographs. They
decided to design a completely new and different instrument, and outlined these five objectives as a
basis for the finished product:

1. To eliminate the necessity of frequently changing the needle.

2. To increase the life of the record at least ten times.
3. To obtain greater reproduction fidelity, especially in regard to cleaner bass notes and
clearer high notes.
4. To secure greater volume and tonal range with obviously less scratch and noise.
5. To safeguard accidentally scratching the record or breaking the needle, as is so readily
done in ordinary phonographs.

These research workers said these objectives were unattainable with the old-fashioned tone arm,
because of the excessive pressure which the needle was compelled to exert to twist the rigidly clamped
and stiff crystal to take the music off the record, a method which grinds the needle and damages the
grooves of the record. They, therefore, designed a tone arm that permitted the needle to rest lightly on
the record and follow the grooves with the greatest of ease and flexibility and with but slight pressure.
A step forward was taken when the light crystal pick-up was substituted for the old-fashioned heavy
reproducer with diaphragm. But a crystal is a device which is the equivalent of a miniature current
generator operating the speaker electrically.

The ideal solution, maintained Philco engineers, was not to make the record groove do the
work, but rather to have it operate as a control. This then was the point of Philco's departure from
earlier manufacturing methods. The uneven groove of the record should be the control and not the
source of the energy.

Scientists had long been experimenting with the photo-electric cell. They were aware of its
distinctive properties, although practical application of these wonder-workers dates back only about
twelve years. They had been utilized to open doors, to protect property in sounding alarms and in
sorting various materials, but they had never been employed in the phonograph industry. Mr. David
Grimes and his associates, however, decided to give it a try.

The problem was solved in the following manner: They decided to do it with mirror. Little
force would be required to move a tiny mirror mounted on the rotating axis, on which the mirror would
swing, as the floating jewel which replaced the old-fashioned steel needle followed the curving
record groove. Thus, by directing a beam of light into the mirror at an angle which reflects the light on
the photo-electric cell, it was possible to set up a controlling source of energy without compelling the
record to do the work. As the floating jewel moved along the curve of the record groove, the mirror
swung from side to side, on its axis, flashing the beam of light on and off the photo-electric cell. Since
the photo-electric cell translates light into electric energy, such being the peculiar property of the
moon element,, Seleniumthe flow of current generated by the photo-electric cell varies in
proportion to the amount of light flashed on the cell, as the mirror is swung by the jewel.

There are four definite stages in this process of reproduction, in order that it may be translated
to the human ear. First, the photo-electric phonograph employs mechanical vibration, as the jewel
pulses in the groove of the record. Secondly, light vibrations are brought into play when reflections of
the light beam shining on the mirror play on the photo-electric cell. Thirdly, electrical vibrations
generated by photo-electric cell are transmitted to, and operate, the loud speaker. Fourthly, acoustical
vibrations carry the sound waves to the ear and complete the process.

This in brief is the fundamental operating principle of the Philco Photo-Electric Radio-
Phonograph. Other refinements and innovations, however, were found necessary to make the
instrument practical and to make it operate satisfactorily. It was found necessary to minimize the
amount of energy required for the jewel to swing the mirror; therefore, a paper-thin mirror was utilized
specially designed for use in galvanometers. This is silvered with a vaporized aluminum and mounted
on a tiny block which swings on an axle that floats on two flexible bearings.

A tiny bulb was also designed to supply the light beam directed against the mirror and reflected
on the photo-electric cell. To meet certain technical requirements as to the size and weight of the bulb,
a very tiny tube filled with gas to lengthen the life of the filament was designed, the first of its kind
commercially produced to possess the refinements of the regular high-powered domestic bulb.

Another problem which had to be met was that the beam of light at its source must have
absolutely no waver or flicker, as this would register on the sensitive photo-electric cell, in addition to
the music, and result in a noticeable hum in the loud speaker. It is evident then that the ordinary
household alternating current which operates the radio-phonograph had to be transformed into a steady
flow of light by an oscillator which generates high frequency currents, stepping up ordinary AC current
from 60 to 1,800,000 cycles. To guarantee and insure a steady and unvarying flow of light, these
engineers found it imperative to build the filament supports in the little bulb of extra-heavy wire to
minimize any shaking on the part of the filament. Otherwise, the musical reproduction would be
marred by microphonic howl or noise generated by the flickering beam of light.

The ardent desire of these designers was that these improvements should cover the entire range
of the piano, reproducing bass notes without thumping sound and high notes to the desirable maximum
range without transmitting any hiss or record noise which might be audible at these high frequencies.

The faithful reproduction of highest frequencies is made possible, says Mr. Grimes, by
employing both mechanical resonance and electrical resonance. Electrical resonance is produced in
the ordinary manner when the vibration of the jewel in the groove is translated into a varying flow of
electric current operating the loud speaker.

Mechanical resonancean extra contribution to the tone valueis achieved by having the tiny
arm which supports the floating jewel made of phosphor bronze of the correct thickness and length
required to make that arm vibrate when a high not is reproduced. Quoting again from Philco's chief
engineer, he puts it this way: Both the jewel and the jewel arm are vibrating with extra intensity in the
high frequency range; consequently, an additional motivating force acts on the mirror, causing it to
flash a more effective light signal to the photo-electric cell than if only the needle were vibrating.

The designers of the Philco Photo-Electric Phonograph state that this achievement is possible
only because of the free floating construction of the photo-electric reproducer. Its lightness and
flexibility make the jewel's tiny arm an additional source of energy, and result in transmission of the
high notes with a clear fidelity.
 A special shielded transformer was designed to relay the current generated by the photo-electric
cell to an amplifying tube. Another innovation in sound transmission is presented in this instrument by
the floating jewel itself. It is carefully ground to the most exact dimensions and has a round tip instead
of the old-fashioned needle's dagger-like point. As a result, it flows through the record groove without
digging into the record and with but little injury to the disc. This is known as the phonograph that
reproduces sound on a beam of light.

Just what type of phonograph can we look for in the future? Will it still play the disc records
which we have identified with it for so many years, or will the records be recorded on metal or paper
strips or wire? To this we might reply that just prior to the outbreak of the war a certain manufacturer
was preparing to place an instrument on the market which could accommodate both type of records,
namely those made on some type of strip material and those recorded on the conventional disc. No
striking signs were visible, however, when the writer visited the eastern plants in 1943, of any large
scale re-designing program of phonographs immediately after the peace. In all likelihood, however,
recording methods will be greatly improved as well as the materials out of which discs are made and,
no doubt, troublesome surface noise will be practically a thing of the past. The new plastics offer many
promising uses, and not least amongst these is a greatly improved and scratch free record.

Recently the question of 'hill and dale recording versus lateral cut records has come to the
fore again. It happened like this: Two scientists of the Bell Telephone Laboratories of New York, H.
A. Frederick and H. C. Harrison, have been conducting experiments with the new plastic records and
very light pick-ups. They have been cutting discs vertically, or by the old hill and dale method,
which you will recall was the method first used in the industry not only by Thomas A. Edison but by
Chichester Bell and Sumner Tainter as well. In this type of recording, you will remember the
indentations are made in the bottom of the groove instead of on the sides and, therefore, the reproducer
rides the groove like a boat gliding up and down on the waves of the water. It may be that, with the
new equipment now made available by modern research, many of the so-called objections to the hill
and dale method of recording are not as great as hitherto seemed apparent with older equipment. At
any rate there seems to be great promise in this direction and its development appears almost assured
for at least one of the new departures which we may expect at some period in the not too distant future.
Suggestions have also been made by the Kruft Laboratory investigators for improving lateral record
reproduction by the use of a ball type needle which would ride more closely the sides of the groove
walls, thereby making the reproduction much clearer and the range greater. But, of course, here too
some re-designing of reproducers would be found necessary.

We may look with confidence into the future, into that bright new tomorrow for which we all so
ardently long, for then the phonograph industry not only will face its greatest challenge, but its largest
and finest opportunity to aid in a new era. The phonograph of that tomorrow will not only be the
embodiment of all the dreams of the makers and producers of today, but also the visions of the Edisons,
the Bells, the Tainters and the Berliners of yesterday.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PHONOGRAPH
 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PHONOGRAPH

GENERAL

Absorption Co-efficients, Journal Franklin Institute, March, 1929.

BARRAND, FRANCIS, His Master's Voice, Wow Nipper Became World Famous, Strand, Aug.,
1916, London, England.

BARTON, E. H., A Test on Sound, Macmillan & Co., Ltd., London, England.

BENN, EARNEST, Natural Varnish Rosins, Messrs. Obros, 1932, London, England.

BRYSON, H. COURTNEY, The Gramophone Record, Earnest Benn, Ltd., London.

Chronium Deposition, U.S. Bureau of Standards Technical Paper, No. 346; also, Engineering Research
Bulletin, No. 10, University of Michigan, 1928.

DAWES, ROBERT GATES, Voice Recording as an Instrument of Therapy and Analysis in the Speech
Correction Clinic, The Lawhead Press, Athens, Ohio, 1936.

DORIAN, FRANK, Reminiscences of the Columbia Cylinder Records, Phonograph Monthly Review,
Jan., 1930.

Effects of Distortion upon Recognition of Speech Sounds, Journal Acoustical Society of America, Vol.
I. 1929 p. 132.

ELLIS, CARLTON, Synthetic Rosins and their Plastics, chapter 18, Chemical Catalog Company.

GAISBERG, F. W., The Music Goes Round, Macmillan Co., New York.

GIBSON, C., Telephones and Gramophones.

HALL, DAVID, Record Book.

HENRY, B. CLEMENTS, Gramophones and Phonographs, Cassell and Son, London and New York.

HUGHBANKS, THE REV. LEROY, Talking Wax, Hobson Book Press, New York.

JONES, BENZYL, Cellulose, British Plastics, 298-1932.

KINGSBURY, A Direct Comparison of the Loudness of Pure Tones, Physical Review, 1923, Vol.
XXXI, p. 84.

LAIRD, TAYLOR and WILLIE, Relationship Between Stimulus, Intensity, Loudness, F. NL

Acoustical Society of America, Vol. III, p. 383.

LANE, C. E., Nature of Sound Pitch, Physical Review, 1925-1926, p. 401.

McFARLANS, LLOYD, The Phonograph Book, The Rider Long Co., Inc. New York.

MARANIES, H. S., A Dog Has Nine Lives (the story of the phonograph), Annals of the American
Academy of Social and Political Science, Sept., 1937, Philadelphia, Pa.

MAXFIELD, J. P., and HARRISON, H. C., Methods of High Quality Recording and Reproduction of
Music and Speech (Based on Telephone Research), Midwinter Convention A.I.E.E., Feb. 8-11, 1926.

MITCHELL, OGILVIE, The Talking Machine Industry, Sir Isaac Pitman and Son, Ltd., London and
New York.

Phonograph Records, Fortune Magazine, Sept., 1939.

Phonograph Records, Recording and Reproduction (A service lecture), R.C.A., 1936.

POINTING, J. J., and THOMPSON, J. J., Sound, Charles Griffin, Ltd., London, England.

Raw materials for Records, Report of Lack and Shellac, Indian Forest Record, 1921, Vol. VIII, Part 1;
also British Plastics Yearbook, 1933; March, 1934, p. 475; and Sept., 1934, p. 144.

ROSS, RICHARDON, Relationship Between Stimulus, Intensity and Loudness, F. NL of General

Psychology, 1930, p. 288.

SEYMOUR, HENRY, The Reproduction of Sound, W. B. Tattersall, Ltd., London, England.

Size and Character of Grains of Non-metallic Mineral Fillers, Technical Paper U.S. Bureau of Mines,
p. 296.

SULLIVAN, CONSTANCE, The Story of the Gramophone, Junior League Magazine.

Survey of Methods for Chemical and Physical Testing of Shellac (Comparative Studies), NAGEL and
BAUMANN.

TAYLOR, SEDLEY, Sound and Music, Macmillan Co., London and New York.

Tension Surface, Technical Paper, 540, U.S. Bureau of Standards.

Vinyl Rosins, British Plastics Supplement; also, Indian English Chemistry, 25, 1925, 1933.

WENTE and BEDELL, Method of Measurement of Sound, Acoustical Society of America, 1930, p.
442. Journal Society Motion Pictures England, 1930, 15, p. 528.

WILLIAMS, S. T., Recent Developments in the Recording and Reproduction of Sound, Journal of the
Franklin Institute, Oct. 1926.

WISSENSCHAFTHICHE, VEROFF, Raw Materials for Records, Enlichung, Vol. II, pp. 99-113.

MAGNETIC
A Practical Method of Wire Recording, The Frontier, Armour Research Foundation, Chicago, Ill.

BEGUN, DR., Magnetic Recording, Electronics, Sept., 1938.

BEGUN, S., Articles on Magnetic Recording, Electronics, Sept., 1938, p. 30.

HICKMAN, C. M., Sound Recording on Magnetic Tape, The Bell System Technical Journal, April,
1937, pp. 165-177.

Magnetic Recording and Reproducing, Bell Laboratories Record, Sept., 1937.

Magnetic Recording-Reproducing Machines for Objective Speech Study, Journal of the S.M.P.E., Vol.
XXIX, No. 2, 1937.

Make Your Silent Movies into Home Talkies, Radio Craft, May, 1938.

MALLOY, T. J., Articles on Magnetic Recording, Electronics, Jan., 1938, p. 30.

The Mirrorphone, Bell Laboratories Record, Sept., 1941, Vol. XX, No. 1, pp. 2-5.

On the Electro-Graphic Recording of Fast Electric Phenomena, Journal of Applied Physics, Oct., 1938.

Recording for Re-Broadcasting in Germany, Wireless World, March 31, 1938.

Records on Paper Tape from Mike or Phone, Radio and Television, March, 1939.

Some Aspects of Magnetic Recording and its Application to Broadcasting, Proceedings I.E.E., March,
1938, London, England.

Sound Recorded on Steel Tape, Radio Craft, April, 1942.

Sound Recording on Magnetic Materials, Radio Craft, March, 1936.

The Steel Tape Recorder, Practical and Amateur Wireless, July 2, 1938.

Storing Speech and Music, Newnes Practical Mechanics, April, 1938.

Thirty-seven Hours of Sound on Single 16 .m.m Reel, Radio Craft, May, 1938.

MECHANICAL

Advanced Disc Recording, Universal Microphone Co., Inglewood, Calif.

BARNES, EVERETTE K., A Treatise on Practical Wax Recording, Universal Microphone Co., Ltd.,
Inglewood, Calif.

BEITMAN, M. N., Most Often Needed Service Notes on Record Players, Automatic Changers,
Wireless Units and Home Recorders, Supreme Publication, Chicago, Ill.
DEARLE, D. A., Plastic Moulding, Chemical Publishing Co., Brooklyn, N.Y.

DREHER, CARL, What are Plastics Made of, Popular Science, Jan., 1944, p. 58.

ELMER, L. A., and BLATTNER, D. C., Machine for Cutting Master Disc Records, Bell Telephone
Laboratories, New York.

FREDERICK, H. A., Vertical Sound Records, Bell Telephone Laboratories, New York.

FREDERICK, H. A., and HARRISON, H. C., Vertically Cut Sound Records, Bell Telephone
Laboratories, New York.

FRYER and WESTON, Technical Handbook of Oils, Fats and Waxes, 2 Volumes, Cambridge
University Press.

GIBSON, C., Telephone and Gramophones.

GOLDSMITH, F. H., and GEISEL, V. G., Techniques of Recording (a practical handbook on

recording), Gamble Hinged Music Co., Chicago, Ill.

GREGORIUS, Mineral Waxes, Balliere, Tyndall and Cox, London.

GRIFFIN, F. E., Simplified Home Recording, Universal Microphone Co., Ltd., Inglewood, Calif.

HILDITCH, Fats and Waxes, Scott Greenwood, 1934.

How to Make Good Recordings, (a complete handbook for everyday recordists) Audio Devices, Inc.,
New York.

HUGHBANKS, THE REV. LEROY, Home Recording Made Easy.

HUGHBANKS, THE R EV. LEROY, The Recordist's Handbook.

KELLER, A. C., Direct Recording and Reproducing Materials for Disc Recording, Bell Telephone
Laboratories, New York.

LABEL, C. J., Articles on Disc Recording, Electronics, Oct., 1937, p. 25; Mach, 1938, p. 22; Nov.,
1938, p. 34; Dec., 1939, p. 17.

LABEL, C. J., Disc-cutting Problems, Electronics, Dec., 1939.

LEWKOWITSCH, Oils, Fats and Waxes, 2 Volumes, Macmillan Co., New York, 1922.

MAXFIELD, J. P., and HARRISON, H. C., High Quality Recording and Reproducing of Music and
Speech, Bell Telephone Laboratories, New York, Aug., 1926.

PLASTES, Plastics in Industry, Chemical Publishing Co., Brooklyn, New York.

RIDER, JOHN F., Automatic Record Changers and Recorders, John F. Rider Publisher, Inc., New
York.

Simplified Disc Recording, Universal Microphone Co., Inglewood, Calif.

SHOR, GEORGE, Galbano Plastic Reproduction from Metal Moulds, Metal Industry, Sept., 1938.

VIETH, L., and WIEBUSCH, C. F., Recent Development in Hill and Dale Records, Bell Telephone
Laboratories, New York.

WILE, FREDERICK WILLIAM, Emile Berliner, Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind.

WOR's Wax Museum, WOR's News, New York, 1943.

OPTICAL

Motion Picture Sound Engineering, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Hollywood, Calif.

Recording Sound for Motion Pictures, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Hollywood,
Calif.

Sound Pictures, Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Vol. XII, pp. 633-643, 657-
741, Sept., 1938. The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. VIII, pp. 159-208, Jan, 1929.

Stereophonic Sound-Film System, Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Vol. XXXVII,
pp. 331-426. Oct., 1941; The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. XIII, pp. 89-114, Oct.,
1941.

Synchronized Reproduction of Sound and Scene, Reprinted from Bell Laboratories Record, Nov.,
1928.

PATENTS

Acetate Records, 316706.

Aluminum Record Patents, 13124L, 1421045, 1444960, Canada 232922, Remsen Corporation.

Anchor for Labels, B.P. 306264.

Automatic Press, B.P. 223945, 365286, 375282, 332548, 305563.

Benzyl Cellulose, B.P. 375399, 358805, 277111.

Central-Hole Radio Slits, B.P. 324534.

Echo Disc, U.S.P. 1444900, 1421005, Plaza Music Company.

Ethyl Cellulose, D.R.P. 470142, 475884, 477154, 485896, 494917, 511019, 492246, 408342, 435346;
U.S.P. 1819600.
Improved Resistance to Needle, B.P. 384694.

Method for Securing Rapidity for Securing a Dye, B.P. 335209.

Resilient Backing, B.P. 319508.

Theoretical Examination of Factors Governing Number of Cuts per Inch and Optimum Angular
Velocity, B.P. 263550, Western Electric.

Vinyl Rosins, B.P. 408969, 388309, U.S.P. 1756943, 1672157, 1784362, 1721034.

Wetting Agents, B.P. 37235, 372351-30, Twiss and Murphy; B.P. 181422, Western Electric.