Thanks for catching this. I meant 1881 but mis-typed 1880 & corrected this in a subsequent "Phono-L" posting including scans of relevant pages of the 1881 Tainter Home Notes as originally forwarded by me to Mr. Sutton (which saved me re-scanning) that is being held for review because of its size. As to history of lateral-cut wax disc recording, all the works I've seen attribute this to Berliner without discussing Tainter's prior research in this regard as detailed in his 1881 Home Notes & drawings. Berliner deserves much credit for originating the extremely important idea of the record groove itself driving the reproducing mechanism across the surface of the record (Tainter's machine used a mechanical feed mechanism) the simplicity of which allowed flexibility in groove spacing & record size not possible with mechanical feed devices. This was of great commercial & practical value since changes could be made in record size for instance without requireing the purchaser to buy new playback equipment or retrofit his old so satisfactory records could remain in the catalogue for decades.
Jim Cartwright Immortal Performances, Inc. [email protected] > [Original Message] > From: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Date: 12-Sep-2010 2:34:08 PM > Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Contact Information needed/lateral > > > In a message dated 9/12/2010 2:14:39 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > [email protected] writes: > > "notice that he, like virtually all writers on the subject, is ignorant of > or has chosen to ignore Charles Sumner Tainter's 1880 Home Notes on > deposit at the Smithsonian Institution" > > > ------------------ > There is really nothing to be ignorant of, or anyone's "choosing to > ignore." Lateral recording has a long and distinguished history if one wishes > to really dig (and well before Tainter too)... > > Are you sure you really mean the year "1880" for the Notebooks > references to Tainter's lateral recording in wax (and not 1881)? > > see PHP: "Its floating-stylus principle (341,214) lurked as a threat for > the infant gramophone industry, despite the written opinion by Pollok & > Mauro on Sept. 28, 1891 that E. Berliner's laterally-recorded, groove-driven > process did not infringe the basic Bell-Tainter patents." > > In other words, there was no impediment whatever to Berliner's (patented) > work in lateral recording since there was no previous Tainter patent for > such (or Volta Labs reduction to practice). Even Leon Scott used the lateral > technique, albeit with lampblack, and Wm Hollingshead of NYC experimented > with lateral recording in wax in 1878! Why do you "ignore" that? > > Ray was quite familiar with Tainter's surviving Notebooks. Invention is an > ongoing process (then and now), and one must not only come up with an idea > but reduce it to practicality. After all, Thomas Young was recording sound > (laterally) on a wax drum in 1806... Rewriting of history is hardly > necessary in this instance, although we should have as much info as possible. > > Allen > _www.phonobooks.com_ (http://www.phonobooks.com) > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
