The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

That would be an interesting reading and hopingly sooner or later someone will take time to scan and prepare a .pdf out of the tome, as I think it's nearly impossible to find a copy and I can very hardly figure any publisher printing an anastatic copy of it in the future.

I wonder how horn-loading transducers are treated. Most of the theories concerning horn-loading and impedance adaptation were heavily revised in the 50s-60s, and even though their phisics are well understood and have been consistently mathematicized, still horn-loaded loudspeaker builders come out everyday with very well sounding projects that outstand the standard theory, and which clearly show that it can't account for many phenomena that are still not included in it and are not well understood.

From time to time I thought about the idea to make a pdf out of the book. But... The author Percy Wilson died in 1977. So, according to european laws, his work is under copyright till 2048... More worse, in 1983 a little publishing house in London made a reprint (that is even harder to get than the original from 1929). So this publishing house owns the publishing rights till 2054....

If you have time to scan it, I think you should simply have it circulating among a ring of experts, like here or elsewhere. It will probably rapidly leak to one of the many repositories on the internet and finally be available to all.

The entire RCA Radiotron book has been scanned and uploaded many years ago, and absolutely nothing happened. Nobody will ever call his attorneys to do anything against an unknown man that made no profit out of a scanned book that the publisher had absolutely no intention to reprint as nobody would ever buy it.

The book Mineral Waxes by R. Gregorius. My copy came from Library RCA Laboratories Radio Corporation of America Princeton, N.J.. However for those interested in cylinder records.(I know you guys are into the machines, NOT the cylinders. ) Or the idea of making your own cylinders. Published in London by Scott, Greenwood and Son. "The Oil and Colour Trades Journal" offices 8 Broadway, Ludgate Hill, e.c. 1908. It is a scholarly scientific study of Ceresin, Ozokerite, Paraffin, Montan wax.

Oils, Fats and Waxes. By P. J. Fryer and F. E. Weston. Vol. II., Practical and Analytical. Pp. 314. (Cambridge: The University Press, 1918.) A scholarly study of stearic, oleo, oils and waxes for lubricants, as well as a cylinder record formula.

If you are interested in the book - PM me...

I would like to recommend "The Music Goes Round" by Fred Gaisberg as an essential read for the serious student of phonographic history. This book was quoted extensively in other early histories, such as "From Tinfoil to Stereo" and "The Fabulous Phonograph". I correctly guessed from those extracts that there was much more to learn if I could find a complete copy of the book. Far from dry, it is a very entertaining and informative book that I believe others would enjoy as much as I have.

"The Music Goes Round" by Fred Gaisberg, published in 1942, was an autobiography of his work as a pioneer recording engineer and talent spotter for The Gramophone Company (later ‘His Master’s Voice’). His book covers the early history of the Columbia, Berliner and the Gramophone companies, the technicalities of early recording and the humorous and emotional demands of dealing with divas. He travelled extensively and he wrote of the recording sessions in Europe and throughout Asia, and of his funny reactions to foreign music and culture.

More about Fred Gaisberg can be read at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Gaisberg

There is an 1893 Columbia brown wax cylinder shown on YouTube where "Professor Gaisberg" announces the title and his piano accompaniment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHElBpc4c5k

Original copies of the book are hard to come by. I casually waited to find an original (and affordable!) edition of this book for many years, but nothing happened. After scouring eBay daily for over a year, I finally bought one.

This morning I searched the Interet with my smartphone to locate an online copy of the book and found one at: https://archive.org/details/musicgoesround011057mbp and read through a few pages. Later today when I returned there to copy a link from that website for this review, I could no longer download the text and .PDF files as I had before. The page with currently dead links on archive.org is still there. Just weird. What's up with that, archive.org? Anyway, at least I have transferred those digital copies to my hard drive. (wink, wink)

Time to revisit this thread. Jerry

Three Edison Cylinder Related Books that are excellent that I find myself going to all the time are:


Edison Blue Amberol Recordings, 1912-1914 Vol. 1 by Ron Dethfelson

Edison Blue Amberol Recordings, 1915-1929,Vol. 2 by Ron Dethfelson

Indestructible and U-S Everlasting Cylinders: An Illustrated History and Cylinderography By Kurt Nauck & Allan Sutton


)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

Percy Wilson wrote another book in 1957, kind of 2nd part/update for the 1929 book, dealing with the sound reproduction systems of that era, The Gramophone Handbook more related to modern record players, reel tape reproducers, stereo and modern amps and speakers.