Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 29 May 91 12:56:41 GMT From: George Horwath Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Did Western Electric Also Produce Sound Recordings? Reply-To: motcid!uunet.uu.net!motcid!horwath@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Hgts, IL 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 410, Message 3 of 4 Lines: 84 > But of more interest to me now was Western Electric's involvement in > phonograph records. It must have been very minimal and limited to the > early days of sound recordings. ^^^^^^^^^^ > Going through my *very old* (1948-49) phonograph records and tapes I ^^^^^^^^^^ Pat, I think we have a slight perspective problem here on the time line as far as the history of phonograph records goes. I've got some in my collection that date back to 1920 and I thought they were NOT that old since they were pressed with recordings on *both* sides. :) Yes, I do have a CD player!! :) The following is what I recall after having looked into the history of records about fifteen years ago. I don't have any references in front of me, so this is all from memory (which is poor, I admit). The round record (as opposed to the Edison cylinder) was invented by Emile Berliner who formed the Victor Talking Machine Company to market it and the record player used to reproduce the sound. (The "correct" term for this record player, BTW, is the gramophone. The phonograph is the name of the Edison invention.) The Victor Talking Machine Company was bought up by RCA and it was RCA Victor that marketed electrical recording (late 20's) and later marketed electrical playback (early 30's). By "electrical recording", I mean direct to disk. This also refers to the consumer market -- I didn't look at the "pro" market (i.e. transcriptions for radio/movies on 12+" disks). Did WE have a hand in the development or was it RCA? Good question. A much earlier "Bell" connection was due to one of good ol' Alexander's relatives (cousin?). He took Edison's invention and improved it and finally marketed it as the graphophone. This was the device that ^^^^^^^^^^^ [Moderator's Note: Did you mean 'gramaphone'? PAT] actually used wax cylinders, instead of foil, as Edison had done. Needless to say, lawsuits followed and Bell won - his method was termed "engraving" (i.e. material, wax, is removed in the process) while Edison used "embossing". > promotional purposes. The wire-recording converted to 'modern magnetic > tape media' (1949, har har!) was of Henry LeMare, municipal organist > for the City of Atlantic City during the 1920's era. It was also > recorded at the auditorium there. LeMare would have probably recorded > it on some earlier type of media; then it went to wire, then tape. It The following will help in dating your recording. The Atlantic City organ, with a 400HP wind plant and over 30,000 pipes, is the largest pipe organ in the world. (Unfortunately, not the largest *playing* pipe organ - it is in a sad state of disrepair. That title belongs to the instrument in the chapel at West Point.) It was designed by Senator Emerson Richards and built by the Midmer-Losh company of Long Island with the contract awarded in early 1929. Built during the Great Depression, it was about 50% complete by May, 1930 and still not finished by April, 1932. Edwin Henry Lemare (1865-1934) was an English organist who moved to the USA. He was quite a virtuoso and, at one time, was the highest paid organist in the world. At various times, he was the municipal organist of San Francisco; Portland, Maine; and Chattanooga, TN. I guess this would place the recording between 1932 - 1934. Motorola C.I.D. I speak for myself, not my employer uunet!motcid!horwath [Moderator's Note: Thanks very much for the detailed accounting of LeMare and Atlantic City. Unfortunatly, its not just the organ which is in a sad state of disrepair. All of Atlantic City -- the famed boardwalk area in particular -- has become a slum, and a crime and drug-infested one at that. Sad, sad, sad ... A contact at the New York Public Library (they have all LeMare's papers in the Special Collections Department) researched this for me today and called back to say his best estimate -- based on reading some stuff in the files -- was the recording had originally been made at the dedication of the instrument in the fall, 1932. If you think a telephone central office has complex wiring and relays, you should try looking inside the console at Atlantic City, or upstairs in the pipe chambers! PAT]