Records

RECORDS 16, 33, 45, 78 rpm transfer to file: $35 per record.

Complete pricing below.

Records are flat circular disks with grooves in the surface used to reproduce sound and have a constant rotational speed.  Edison (New Jersey) is credited with developing the first sound reproduction ‘phonograph’ in 1877 by using a spiral grooved impression in a tin foil covered cylinder.  Bell (Washington D.C., New York) improved the cylinder by covering it with hard wax and called it a ‘graphophone’ in the 1887.  Berliner (Philadelphia) patented a flat record disc called a ‘gramophone’ in 1894 and commercialized it using the ‘Berliner Gramophone’ trademark.  Improvements to wax master recordings made records worthy of established musicians making opera, instrumental, and jazz recordings accessible to the public.  Early records quickly 'wore out' with multiple plays. Berliner formed the Victor Talking Machine Co. in 1901 as a result of lawsuits and developed the popular Victrola record player.  In 1929 part of Victor became the Japanese Victor Company (JVC) and the remainder merged with RCA (who was a major competitor in radio) becoming RCA Victor.  Record grooves have been made with various materials over the years including wax, phenolic, schellac, aulminum, and acetate.  And cores have been made from brittle phenolic, aluminum, cardboard, and (modern) vinyl.

GRAY AUDOGRAPH RECORD

GRAY AUDOGRAPH record transfe to audio file: $45 per disk.  Complete pricing below.

Gray Audograph records were introduced by the Gray Manufacturing Company of Hartford Connecticut in 1945 for recording audio dictation.  Gray Audograph disks are blue flexible grooved disks with a star center hub.  They play with a constant speed under the needle that is achieved by rotating the disks with a variable rotational speed of approx. 33 rpm to 15 rpm starting from the center and playing outward towards the edge.  The needle is fixed and the record platter rotates and slides with an intricate mechanical design.  The spacing between the record grooves is approx. 0.100mm (0.004-inches).  Disks can be "resurfaced" to remove the groves and can be reused.  Soundwriter machines will record and playback 20, 30, and 60-minute disks.  Other names associated with this format are Gray Flexograph, Gray Transcriptions, Electronic Sound Writer, Gray Audograph, and Phonaudograph. 

16-inch TRANSCRIPTION Disk: $45

Transcription Disks (Electronic Transcription (ET), “platter”) are grooved audio recordings on 16-inch diameter records developed by Jewett (Western Electric Chicago, New York). They were developed for radio broadcast and were in use from the 1920s through 1960s.  Transcription Disks were used to record original radio programming and copies shared between affiliated radio stations for broadcast or purchased by others.  Programming included religious, music, drama, and entertainment.  The first radio broadcast was a 1906 Christmas concert to commercial sea borne vessels in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.  The first commercial radio station was KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA in 1920.  Transcription disks play at a speed of 33-1/3rpm for up to 20 minutes per side; some transcription disks play from the center outwards.  Sound grooves are cut into a coating of shellac, black cellulose nitrate, or vinyl (poly vinyl chloride) over cores made of aluminum, glass, or vinyl (vinyl used after 1940). 

General Prices: