The Studios
"A Matter of Record"
PART 1: A "PHONOGRAPHIC" MIND
Al, as he was called as a boy, burned down the family barn at six, and attended three different schools between the ages of seven and nine.
His mother eventually pulled him out of school and home-taught him after the principal deemed him incorrigible, confused and just plain stupid. His own father also thought he was both stupid and annoying.
But Life Magazine went on to name him the most important person who shaped the last millennium, ahead of such notables as Christopher Columbus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo, Charles Darwin, William Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Mohandas Gandhi, Walt Disney, Henry Ford , Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Today he has a major city in New Jersey named after him, as well as a New York utility company. He held 1,093 patents but is best remembered for inventing what you are most likely using to be able to read this essay.
He was Thomas Alva Edison, the poster child for "ADHD" (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and best remembered for inventing the light bulb. Lesser known, but almost as important to us music lovers, is his invention of the phonograph.
In 1877 as a byproduct of Edison's experimentation with the telephone and telegraph, he spoke the nursery rhyme, "Mary had a little lamb" into the mouthpiece of his little machine, played back his words, and the age of recording was born.
The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company was founded and thus created the impetus for the growth of the recording industry, and to an extent, the foundation of the music business as we know it today.
The original Edison cylinder phonograph was a machine that contained, on the surface, a strip of tinfoil wrapped around a rotating metal drum (cylinder). The machine had two distinct needle units, one for recording, and one for playback. The needle drew grooves; the depth of the grooves corresponded to the changes in air pressure created by the original sound.
The machine was an instant success but was difficult to operate except by experts, and the tin foil would last for only a few plays.
Perhaps distracted by his ADHD or because Edison had more important things to work on (like the light bulb), he abandoned the phonograph for about ten years.
In the void left by Edison, others moved forward to improve the phonograph, notably Alexander Graham Bell. Yes, the same Bell, "Father of Ma Bell," inventor of the telephone and # 31 on Life Magazine's list, thirty notches below Edison. (click here for the complete list)
Bell made some improvements on Edison's invention, chiefly by using wax in the place of tin foil and a floating stylus instead of rigid needles. Calling his invention the graphophone, Bell approached Edison to discuss a possible collaboration on the machine, but Edison refused, determined to improve the phonograph himself.
Having succeeded in making the incandescent lamp, in 1887 Edison could now "clearly focus" (get it, ha ha) on his cylinder phonograph. His initial work, though, closely followed the improvements made by Bell, especially in its use of wax cylinders instead of the tin foil he had used a decade earlier.
A new company, the Edison Phonograph Company, was formed on October 8, 1887, to market Edison's machine. He introduced what he awkwardly termed "The Improved Phonograph," shortly followed by "The Perfected Phonograph."
A great inventor, Edison would never have made it in the marketing or advertising departments!
"The Perfected Phonograph," which Edison created, featured wax cylinders, four inches long and two inches in diameter. They cost about fifty cents each, typically played at 120 r.p.m., and delivered about two minutes of recorded music.
But the music cylinders could only be produced in small quantities, so the commercial viability of Edison's phonograph seemed uncertain. Suppliers of the phonograph were only capable of producing a few dozen recorded cylinders at a time by mechanical duplication.
In 1890, however, the Edison Laboratories devised a method to mass-produce pre-recorded phonograph cylinders in molds, using very slightly tapered cylinders and molding in a material that contracted as it hardened.
Molded cylinders containing pre-recorded music were now produced in quantity and created the foundation for the mass production of records and the commercial record (music) industry that exists to this very day. So, you see, folks, not only can people afflicted with ADHD change a light bulb....they can invent one as well. And the microphone, movie projector and phonograph too.
PART 2: TO "THE VICTOR" GO THE SPOILS
Most of us love to watch the entertainment awards on television-the Oscars, which honor the best motion pictures; the Tonys for theater; Clios for advertising; and the Grammys for music. Ever wonder where the names Oscar, Tony, Clio and Grammy came from?
Three out of four really had nothing much to do with the industries they are associated with. But can you guess which one is associated with the birth of an industry? Oscar, you say? Sorry. Legend has it that the executive director thought the gold statue, originally named the "Academy Award of Merit," looked like her Uncle Oscar.
The Tonys were named after a philanthropist, Antoinette Perry, and the Clios after a Greek goddess. The answer, boys and girls, is that the Grammys were named after the recording machine: the gramophone. Oh, you say; you've heard of the phonograph, but what in the world is a gramophone?
The Edison phonograph (see part 1) used a cylinder as the medium on which to record. The gramophone was to become the turntable, or record player, that used a flat, black disc, which was the primary medium of playing recorded music from 1890 to the 1980s, before it was supplanted by the compact disc.
Until 1894, all recordings were on cylinders designed to be played on the Edison phonograph or Bell graph-o-phone. These cylinders first used tin foil, and then wax compounds, but the tin foil lasted only a few plays, and the wax cylinders were easily broken and wore out quickly. Cylinders were difficult to mass-produce and could be copied only in limited numbers, usually by mechanical means (see part 1).
In 1886, Emil Berliner, a German immigrant who had become a United States citizen just a few years earlier, began experimenting with methods of sound recording. He envisioned a great future for music recording. He worked on an alternative system to record on discs, as opposed to the cylinders of Edison and Bell. He called his invention the "gramophone."
However, the sound quality of Berliner's gramophone was substantially inferior to that of the Edison cylinder records. Discs were cheaper, less reliable and usually of lower audio fidelity than the cylinder records, and were widely considered little more than "toys." So initially the technology was sold to toy companies, which used the discs in such things as talking dolls and small, hand-turned machines marketed to children.
Looking to improve his invention and market it more effectively, Berliner entered into an agreement with several New York investors. Together they formed the American Gramophone Company, later to be called the United States Gramophone Company.
With the financial backing and gradual improvements, the flat disc caught on when the public realized the disc's significant advantage over the cylinder. The disc record, after all, was made of hard rubber, thus less susceptible to damage. It could be mass-produced inexpensively, so discs could penetrate the market more efficiently. Discs required no storage capsules, could be stored upright in their jackets, and took up less space. Discs had a blank center area where information about the artist, serial number, date, and so on could be etched, and where a permanent paper label could be attached, listing the recorded songs. Finally, both sides could be used, doubling the amount of recorded music a single disc could contain.
But now, as the classic saying goes: "Failure is an orphan, but success has many fathers." The sudden success of Berliner's disc player spawned many competitors, who saw the tremendous financial potential of Berliner's invention.
Serious challenges to Berliner's gramophone came about from names like "Vitaphone," manufactured by the American Talking Machine Company, and "Zonophone," made by the Universal Talking Machine Company. The design and technology of the Zonophone was allegedly "gleaned" (some say "stolen") from Berliner by a former employee, Frank Seaman.
Seaman, collaborating with Columbia Records (which then manufactured only cylinder records and machines), argued that the patents held by Columbia concerning cylinders applied to "any type of recording where a stylus vibrated in a groove."
Incredibly, Seaman was successful with his litigation, and got the judge to file an injunction that prohibited Berliner from manufacturing the gramophone discs and players.
Years of litigation ensued, and eventually Berliner, weary and almost broke, decided to reorganize. He merged with Eldridge R. Johnson to form a new company called the Consolidated Talking Machine Company.
Johnson and Berliner counter-sued, and the following year, emerged victorious in court. After Johnson and Berliner's legal victories over Seaman and the Zonophone-as well as all others-concerning their rights to patents on and distribution of their products, they changed the name of the company from the Consolidated Talk Machine Company to, appropriately, "The Victor," in honor of their legal victory.
"The Victor" went on to be called the Victor Talking Machine Company. It manufactured the early turntable, which was called the Victrola. In the 1920s, the company collaborated with the Japanese, thereby creating the "Japanese Victor Company." You most likely know them today simply by the initials "JVC."
Proving that to the Victor goes the spoils, eventually The Victor Talking Machine Company was acquired by RCA, went on to become RCA Victor and, later, RCA Records.
Thankfully, the gramophone prevailed over the phonograph. After all, who would ever want to watch an award ceremony called "The Phonys "? That award is much better suited to political conventions instead. (Yuk, yuk)
PART 3: STAYING ALIVE
For those of you 35 and older, perhaps the record still conjures up fond memories. Jukeboxes in ice cream parlors. Old Beatles albums "Rubber Soul" always comes to my mind. Dancing in discos as the DJ played tracks from "Saturday Night Fever" on dual turntables. Or perhaps just a romantic Saturday night, when you put a favorite record on the turntable, lifted the arm gently, removed the dust from the needle, dropped the stylus on the disc and sat back on the sofa in a dimly lit room, and maybe fell in love for the first time.
Sorry, you youngsters, but CDs, DVDs, MP3s, iPods and hard drives just can't compare. Trust me!
Over the years, since it was invented by Emil Berliner in 1895 (see Part 2), the record has undergone significant changes. And analog audio recording onto a disc was the main technology used for storing recorded sound throughout most of the 20th century.
The first discs for gramophones or phonographs, as they came to be called in the United States, were marketed commercially back in 1895. By the early 20th century, they had gradually overtaken the phonograph cylinder (see Part 1) as the dominant medium of recorded sound.
The first disc records were made from various materials, including hard rubber. By the 1920s, however, the hard rubber records had been replaced by a substance called "shellac."
Shellac records were extremely brittle and as fragile as glass. Perhaps you remember Donna Reed in the movie It's a Wonderful Life , smashing the record over the phonograph? Or perhaps Moe breaking a record over Curly's head in the Three Stooges Micro-Phonies ? Pretty tough to do with hard rubber, and even harder do with the material that replaced the shellac record and that is familiar to most of us-the vinyl record.
Vinyl is a tough and flexible plastic, originally used in floor coverings. While the shellac record was brittle and broke relatively easily, the vinyl record, made from this plastic substance, was flexible and unbreakable under normal use. Vinyl also had a much lower playback noise level than shellac.
The size of the record evolved, as well. In the 1890s, those early discs were usually 7". By 1910, they had increased to 10". By far the most popular size ever was the 12" record.
The earliest speeds of rotation varied widely, but by 1910, records were typically rotating at or about 78 times in one minute. This gave such records the common name of "78s" (or "seventy-eights"). In the late 1930s, a new format began to emerge, and gradually replaced the standard 78.
In 1939, Columbia Records began extensive research into recording and playing back narrow grooves, and developing an inexpensive, reliable consumer long-playing record. Interrupted by World War II, the research was finally completed in 1948, when the 12" Long Play (LP) microgroove record was introduced by Columbia Records at a dramatic New York press conference.
The bitter commercial rivalry between RCA Victor and Columbia Records, which dated back to the legal battles over who owned the rights to the gramophone (see Part 2), led to RCA Victor introducing a vinyl format intended to be competition: the 7", 45-rpm Extended Play (EP) record.
For a two-year period, from 1948 to 1950, record companies and consumers faced uncertainty over which of these formats would ultimately prevail in what became known as the "War of the Speeds"-not all that different from the Beta vs. VHS video format wars that would follow 25 years later (click here).
But unlike the VHS vs. Beta format wars, the 45s and 33 LP battle ended in a compromise, because each format found a separate marketing niche, and record players were redesigned to use either type.
The 7" 45-rpm EP, or "single," established a significant niche for shorter-duration discs that usually contained one song on each side. The 45-rpm discs typically mirrored the playing time of the former 78-rpm discs. The 45s became famous for those old singles-you remember, with the large center hole -that became an icon for the record industry in the 50s and 60s.
The 12" 33-rpm LP prevailed as the dominant format for musical albums, and offered up to one half-hour of music per side. Although they have now been overtaken by digital media such as the Compact Disc (CD)-and now iPods -as a mass-market music medium, surprisingly, vinyl records continue to be manufactured and sold. And those of you who think the record is dead: think again. To paraphrase Mark Twain : "the reports of the death of the record have been grossly exaggerated". but more on that next time.
PART 4: IT'S BACK
There are but a few home electronic devices and appliances that have survived nearly 100 years from the time they were first invented.
The telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, and radio, invented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895, are two of the most significant inventions that continue to be as vital in the 21st century as they were throughout most of the 20th century. Both have not been adversely affected to any significant degree by the major technological changes that have occurred, particularly within the past 20 years.
Telephones are still essential, despite email, and radio remains a very powerful instrument, despite television and the internet. Radio personalities Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern and Don Imus are, unquestionably, three of the most influential people in the US today. Television, credited to John Logie Baird in 1926, continues to be the most powerful medium ever invented, but faces growing competition from the internet, as TV's overall viewing audience keeps declining worldwide.
For example, a recent poll showed that Canadians in the 18 to 34 age group spend an average of 14.7 hours a week online and 11.7 hours listening to radio. Television, surprisingly, comes in third, with 11.6 hours of average weekly viewing.
Film, "developed" by George Eastman in 1888, still endures, but is facing significant competition from digital cameras. Kodak has laid off thousands, and even Fuji Film has seen its film business decline significantly. Cutbacks have included dropping the sponsorship of the recent US Tennis Open this past August. I know this firsthand: as a Fuji distributor I would get to go as Fuji's guest and sit in the company's luxury suite every year. (Damn, how I hate that digital photography!)
The phonograph and gramophone invented by Thomas Edison in 1880 and Emil Berliner