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 revibrate 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. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Baritone Solos: Yankee Doodle; Baby Mine; Nancy Lee Cornet Solo Baritone Solo: Tar's Farewell Soprano Solo: Home Sweet Home; Annie Laurie Tenor Solo: A Wandering Minstrel I 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 phonographgraphophone, 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 phonographgraphophone 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 recreations. 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 wellestablished 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 nonregenerative 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 radiophonograph-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 RadioPhonograph. 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, 657741, 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.