To Ben, Doug, Peter, and all the fine folks of this list, my profound thanks for your fascinating and thorough contributions on this subject. In a matter of days, I now know more than I had learned through some 15 years of incidental research. I can't thank you enough.
A bit more info on materials used: My 12" Stokowski PT's are flexible vinyl (Vinylite?), while all my 10" are the same brittle shellac as normal 78's of the era. I would think "Victrolac" was a slightly (if at all) modified shellac formula that was more about marketing 'the next next big thing' than being a revolutionary material (no pun intended). I am curious exactly what "Z shellac" is, a notation I've seen on VE scrolls in Nauck's auctions. We do have two questions so far unanswered, to which I'd like to add a third: 1. Do we have a way to find out the exact dimensions of the stylus intended for use with Program Transcriptions? Does anyone know of a 'white paper' on the subject buried somewhere in the old RCA Victor files, perhaps? 2. Does a complete list of PT's exist anywhere that we know of? Is there a way to know which releases used matrices specially recorded for LP vs. dubbed PT's? 3. If 33.3rpm Vitaphones were a Victor concern (right? weren't they?), and Edison invented the microgroove (as well as the micromicrogroove with his almost unplayable 80rpm LP's), and Victor combined a type of microgroove with their PT LP's, then exactly what did Columbia get credited for "inventing" in 1948? Again, many thanks to you all, Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: "eug4not" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, April 28, 2006 5:36 PM Subject: [Phono-L] Victor long playing records > Hi folks, > > Here is some more info on the old Victor coarse-groove LP records: > > Victor placed a full page on page 1 of the December 1931 Popular Science Monthly > magazine. The caption said: "Now.....from "Radio Headquarters", the amazing Radio- > Phonograph that plays the New 30-Minute Records". Shown in the ad was a picture of the > newly released 12" LP: Beethoven's 5th symphony, performed by Stokowski and the > Philadelphia Orchestra.. It was shown, in playing position on the new RAE-26 radio-phono. > The text of the ad talks about 15 minutes of play time on each side of a 12" record. My copy > of the Beethoven 12" record (# L7001) has 3 1/8" of recorded wax on each side. Each side > plays for 15 1/2 minutes. The calculated number of grooves/inch comes out at 165. L7001 is > one of the few classical coarse-groove LP records that were recorded for the purpose, not > dubbed. Most were dubbed. > > The (I think) 1931 Victor catalog has 3 2/3 pages devoted to LP records, the catalog > copyrighted in 1934 has 5+ pages, the catalog copyrighted in 1936 has 3, and the catalog > copyrighted in 1940 has 1/3 of a page of mostly organ music, oriented to funeral parlors. > > An interesting "stereo creation" of some of Duke Ellington's mono performances recorded > on coarse-groove LP, made in 1932, was made after the discovery that the performances > were recorded simultaneously on two different lathes, fed from two different microphones. > A clever individual (I believe his name was Mark Tucker) had the opportunity to audition two > recordings that seemed to be of identical performances, but had subtle differences in sound. > Careful synchronization and matching of playback speeds yielded a "stereo" left and right > track. These stereo creations were released on the LP label Everybody's as # 3005, by > Marlor Productions, Hicksville. NY 11802. > > Best regards, > > Ben H. Tongue > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > [email protected] > > Phono-L Archive > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org/archive/ > > Support Phono-L > http://www.cafepress.com/oldcrank >
