Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 27 May 91 04:06:23 GMT From: 99700000 Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Did Western Electric Also Produce Sound Recordings? Message-ID: Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz Open Access Computing Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 400, Message 3 of 9 Lines: 44 I'm looking at a book copyright 1932 (Radio Physics Course, by Ghirardi) that tells about talking movies among other things. The Vitaphone system developed by Bell Labs used approx 15-inch dia records turning at 33-1/3 rpm. Refers to Vol 7 No 3 issue of Bell Laboratories Record for more details. Must have been a gutsy way to make movies, since the sound was recorded at the same time as the filming and you couldn't edit the record. Obviously the reason for the large slow record is to make it last as long as a reel of film. While this format didn't last long in the movies it did carry over to radio broadcasting. Up until the 1950s broadcast radio stations had libraries of "transcriptions" on 15-inch 33-1/3 rpm disks. These contained all kinds of stuff: music, sound effects, historical speeches, etc. Also programs could be distributed in this way; programs not considered important enough to rate real-time wire network transmission. Some stations had recording equipment so they could record important events broadcasts on disks. I presume the 33-1/3 speed was chosen for LP records because the radio stations already had to have dual speed turntables to play the transcriptions and 78 rpm records; it would be hard to introduce yet another speed (until RCA and 45 RPM came along, but that's another story). The LP records did require a different stylus, as the transcriptions used the same wide groove that 78 rpm records used. The book says Bell Labs also developed the Movietone sound-on-film system. Oh, and my grandmother had a Western Electric sewing machine. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@ucsccats.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Well for awhile there were also experiments with records spinning at 16 7/8 rpm ... remember those? They were 'spoken word' things; i.e. plays, dramatic readings, etc. I've got an oldie here of Carl Sandburg reading his poems at 16 7/8 rpm. I guess they gave up on those by 1950 or so. I've also got a four record set of George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" on 16 7/8 rpm, probably from 1950 or so. The label is RCA Victor; i.e. the dog listening to his master's voice on the big horn. PAT]