So how did Edison expect consumers to play his LP's if the LP conversion kits only geared down the feedscrew of existing DD machines? I know DD springs can hold a lot, but I've never seen one play for 24 minutes (roughly 5 DD's without winding), much less 40 (as the 12" LP's ran). Did the LP kit include an additional or larger spring?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug" <[email protected]> > It's simple when goven a bit of thought. Sure, you can gear down a spring > motor, but the governor has to run at high speed to remain reasonably > smooth. This means that you use up all of your spring, keeping the governor > going, while the turntable runs at slow speed. Under those conditions, a > long playing record will play less than half the playing time on the > phonograph before you run out of spring. The listener would be cranking the > motor several times before a 33 1/3 RPM disc could finish playing. That > wouldn't go over well with customers at all! It would explain the reason > that Edison used 80 RPM for his long play records. We might say that he had > half of the puzzle solved, but he didn't go to slow playing speed because > it wasn't practical with a spring motor.
