It seems the 45 min^-1 record is 60 years old. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/business_the_seven_inch_single/html/1.stm
This is one of those remnants that extremists get excited over because the record mentioned is called by an inch name, even though it is incorrect. In the US we never called records by their inch size. We always called them by their speed. We had the 45 min^-1 singles, 33-1/3 long playing and the older 78 min^-1. Everyone knows them simply as 45s, 33s and 78s. Never anthing else. Yet extremists falsely claim these to be inch based because they were falsely given inch names. I happen to have a sample of all three record types and I can honestly state that none are to the measurements the extremists drool over. My 45s are 175 mm. 7 inches is 178 mm. Thus the records are 3 mm shorter then their inch name claim. My 33s are 302 mm. 12 inches is 305 mm. Thus the records are 3 mm shorter then their inch name claim. My 78s are 250 mm. 10 inches is 254 mm. Thus the records are 4 mm shorter then their inch name claim. I believe that outside the US 33s are 300 mm exactly. Some of you on this list who do not come from the US may be able to check their record collection and verify the diameters. The 17.5 cm disc was originally designed by Emile Berliner of Germany and he chose the metric size as standard and the inch sizes were the closes the English could come up with, but even with inch names they never changed the sizes Berliner chose to the rounded inch sizes they named them. Berliner arranged for the first gramophones to be made in Europe during the trip to Germany 1889-90. According to Raymond Wile, "It was in Germany that the first commercial beginnings of the gramophone occurred - presumably in July 1890. The toy makers Kammer and Reinhardt in Waltershausen (Thuringia) began to market small hand-propelled gramophones and a talking-doll. For the doll, a small 8 centimeter disc was prepared, and for the regular machine a 12.5 centimeter disc. The records were available in three substances during the period they were marketed. Without adequate documentation it is impossible to determine if the copies made in hard rubber or celluloid were contemporaneous, or which substances had precedence. For an additional price, zinc discs also were available. The records were produced by two companies, one known solely by the initials GFKC, the other was the Rhenische Gummi und Celluloid Fabrik Werkes of Necharan, Mannheim. The machines and records also were imported into England, notably by J. Lewis Young, but were available for only a few years in both countries" (Wile 1990 p. 16). As a result, Berliner's efforts led to the establishment of Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (DGG, later to become PolyGram). http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/recording/berliner.html Thus despite the corrupted names, vinly records are a true metric invention. Jerry
