The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I found this at the libarary of congress site. It is an article in the Feb 17 issue of Diamond Points that was taken from a Sun article.

I couldn’t find a reference to it on this site after a search, so, here it is:

https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison- ... t-seventy/


A couple of things struck me after reading the article.

The first was that Edison gave up on doing anything more with the phonograph because it had been perfected. I’m trying to decide whether that was hubris or just the fact that he was stone deaf. It also made me wonder if the tone tests that were done on stage really did sound life-like. Since all my discs have a background hum and I’m close enough to my C19 to hear the motor tick I’d really love to hear a new record on a quiet machine. Even so, no one who has heard a mono recording of an orchestra can possibly compare it to the live version.

The other thing and struck me was the fact that he was surprised there were no technical innovations during World War I. Just taking the airplane alone the amount of innovation between the early planes and the later models is huge. The jump in technology from engines, airfoils, airframes, and armament is incredible.

Thanks for sharing this interesting article.

Good article. I believe Edison may very well have thought the Diamond Disc was about as good as recording needed to be.

I think that we may never hear anything equal to what was demonstrated at the Tone Tests. Apparently, most of the discs were coated in extra layers of condensite, which I figure would make a huge difference in surface noise and sound quality. Plus, there were several carefully thought out angles: it was dark, most people were fairly far away, it mostly demonstrated single voices, which I think do sound very good on Edison discs.

We can rebuild reproducers, find New-Old-Stock ones, but everything has aged about 100 years. I have no evidence, but I personally think almost everything used to make records does degrade, even if microscopically, over the years, so even a NOS disc might not sound exactly as it would have new. I still think an acoustic Edison disc almost always sounds better than any other acoustic lateral disc. The only time it doesn't is when the condensite is thin or worn, which is unfortunately fairly often.

Jwb88 wrote:Good article. I believe Edison may very well have thought the Diamond Disc was about as good as recording needed to be.

I think that we may never hear anything equal to what was demonstrated at the Tone Tests. Apparently, most of the discs were coated in extra layers of condensite, which I figure would make a huge difference in surface noise and sound quality. Plus, there were several carefully thought out angles: it was dark, most people were fairly far away, it mostly demonstrated single voices, which I think do sound very good on Edison discs.

We can rebuild reproducers, find New-Old-Stock ones, but everything has aged about 100 years. I have no evidence, but I personally think almost everything used to make records does degrade, even if microscopically, over the years, so even a NOS disc might not sound exactly as it would have new. I still think an acoustic Edison disc almost always sounds better than any other acoustic lateral disc. The only time it doesn't is when the condensite is thin or worn, which is unfortunately fairly often.

I agree, this article is very interesting and gives some insight into Thomas Edison. As far as age taking its toll on the records and the machines, I agree that is will inevitably happen. I think we may never actually hear how well a new Edison sounded on a new machine. I speculate and always believe that an Edison sounds better than just about any lateral machine. However, the Edison is not for everyone, and not always a good beginner or for that one and only machine. The Edison Diamond Disc machine’s are very limited when it comes to music available, and especially hot dance and blues music at an affordable price. While I love Edison machines, if I had to suggest between an Edison or Victrola for a new collector, it would be a Victor.

I also think Edison was out of touch with the average worker with some of his comments, I’m sure Edison did not live on 25 cents a day.

BwanaJoe wrote:I found this at the libarary of congress site. It is an article in the Feb 17 issue of Diamond Points that was taken from a Sun article.

I couldn’t find a reference to it on this site after a search, so, here it is:

https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison- ... t-seventy/


A couple of things struck me after reading the article.

The first was that Edison gave up on doing anything more with the phonograph because it had been perfected. I’m trying to decide whether that was hubris or just the fact that he was stone deaf. It also made me wonder if the tone tests that were done on stage really did sound life-like. Since all my discs have a background hum and I’m close enough to my C19 to hear the motor tick I’d really love to hear a new record on a quiet machine. Even so, no one who has heard a mono recording of an orchestra can possibly compare it to the live version.

The other thing and struck me was the fact that he was surprised there were no technical innovations during World War I. Just taking the airplane alone the amount of innovation between the early planes and the later models is huge. The jump in technology from engines, airfoils, airframes, and armament is incredible.

I am puzzled by his thinking there were no technical innovations during World War I.

Victrolacollector wrote:

BwanaJoe wrote:I found this at the libarary of congress site. It is an article in the Feb 17 issue of Diamond Points that was taken from a Sun article.

I couldn’t find a reference to it on this site after a search, so, here it is:

https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison- ... t-seventy/


A couple of things struck me after reading the article.

The first was that Edison gave up on doing anything more with the phonograph because it had been perfected. I’m trying to decide whether that was hubris or just the fact that he was stone deaf. It also made me wonder if the tone tests that were done on stage really did sound life-like. Since all my discs have a background hum and I’m close enough to my C19 to hear the motor tick I’d really love to hear a new record on a quiet machine. Even so, no one who has heard a mono recording of an orchestra can possibly compare it to the live version.

The other thing and struck me was the fact that he was surprised there were no technical innovations during World War I. Just taking the airplane alone the amount of innovation between the early planes and the later models is huge. The jump in technology from engines, airfoils, airframes, and armament is incredible.

I am puzzled by his thinking there were no technical innovations during World War I.

Especially the great improvements in radio technology, which paved the way for its boom in the '20s.

That's a good article and for once the quotes actually sound like him. So many interviews that I have read makes him sound like the English teachers of my youth. This piece has the ring of real speech about it. Speaking of his comment about technical progress during World War I, Edison wasn't happy with his experience on the Navy Consulting Board. He did present them with quite a number of ideas,very few of which were adopted. He was consequently a bit annoyed with the experience.
He always had blind spot where wireless was concerned, and I have never been able to understand why this was so. He...or at least he and William Hammer of the Menlo Park lab .... was the inventor of the thermionic diode....the Edison Effect, it was called. But of course at that point it was a laboratory curiosity. He also fiddled around with what he termed the " etheric force" which were radio waves. So why he had little interest in wireless is puzzling .

Jim

Interesting article, thanks for posting. On Edison's affirmative that his phonograph had reached perfection, I read it as an inserted piece of advertisement rather than a sincere thought: he was a master in publicity.

Just as an FYI, if you look to the left of the article there are other Diamond Point newsletters with Edison interviews.

Even back with Edison they were worried about their weight. It sounds like he was careful and did not want to get food poisoning . Has anyone tried to turn there record player around to get different effects??? I never thought about that but it would bounce the sound around differently. Maybe a echo.??? Tom B