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I'm having trouble telling the two apart. I've noticed the little VE stamped in later batwings, and I know all scroll labels are electric. However, I've noticed a few batwings which have eccentric groves but I'm not sure if it's electric or not. Any help?

The (VE) in the oval indicates that it is, indeed, an electric recording. The eccentric grove was used before electrically recorded discs were introduced--not sure what year it was first used.

Columbia early electric recordings are stamped with a "W" in a circle.

HTH,
OrthoFan

Late acoustic victors had that style of a groove at the end of the record. Unless it has the VE stamp it is an acoustic recording.

Stephen

Isn't 19626 about the first of the Orthophonic recordings on the popular series records? I think they started recording electrically around the middle of 1925.

Also I read in Mike Sherman's Victor Record book that popular acoustic Batwings, such as Caruso records, continued to be pressed, and naturally, Victor pressed them with the new eccentric groove so they would work with the new Orthophonic Victrolas.

EarlH wrote:Isn't 19626 about the first of the Orthophonic recordings on the popular series records? I think they started recording electrically around the middle of 1925.

IIRC, March of '25 for Victor, February of '25 for Columbia. Many early Victor electrics bear batwing labels, until late '25 when the scroll label was introduced.

EarlH wrote:Isn't 19626 about the first of the Orthophonic recordings on the popular series records? I think they started recording electrically around the middle of 1925.

That's what I've always heard -- "Joan of Arkansas" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ8HU0HLlfw

OF

19626 from March of '25 is the first electrical record that Victor released. The first issued record that was electrically recorded (initially as a test in late February of '25) was 35753 by the Eight Famous Victor Artists, but it wasn't released until July of '25.

Here's an interesting Bell Labs experimental recording from mid-1924 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An32kWfiUus

I'm wondering how many of these survived.

The sound quality is excellent--good enough to have been issued commercially.

OrthoFan

The first of the 1924 Bell Labs tests were done for Columbia, several months before Victor.

As many know, Eldridge Johnson started out tepid on the idea.

The guy's YouTube video above says these were the first of what became known as 'Orthophonic' recording, which is Victor's designation, but Victor and Columbia were at first licensing the same system.