Angelophone Records - 7" Vertical Cut

[donniej]

I recently came into a collection of 29 of these discs, thanks to a thoughtful collector who didn't have a way to play them but wanted them recorded for all to hear. An internet search suggests that there was a total of 50 titles made, and while I have no affiliation or interest in the Jehovah Witnesses, if others can upload (some of) the audio of the 21 other discs then it would be considerate to make the audio from the discs available for members of the faith. Regardless, I'll soon be uploading the 29 I currently have as well as all of the sleeve art.

The discs were made in 1916, all are sung by Henry Burr and all are hymns. The reverse side has some sort of "sermon" regarding the hymn on the "A" side. The "A" side has a small paper label, the "B" side is etched. The discs are all 7", vertical cut with a standard 78 groove, they seem to play somewhere around 85rpm (a guess). I assume that the reproducer on the phonograph faced forward, like a Pathé, but unlike a Pathé it used a steel needle. This combination of a vertically cut shellac disc using a steel needle resulted in rapid wear. Fortunately all the discs in this collection were spared all but minor shelf wear.

I do intend to (physically) copy one or two of these discs, but only one or two. It will be interesting to see how the copies play on a Diamond Disc machine

PS. If you are a Jehovah Witness and would be willing to help me decide which disc(s) to copy, I would be grateful for your advice.