Marathon Record: 5 minutes in 10 inches

[CarlosV]

I just bought half a dozen Marathon records, with their original sleeves. These British brand is vertically recorded, but the discs must be played with a steel needle, not a sapphire. The technology is similar to that of the early US Okeh records, but with a significant difference: Marathon 10-inch records can play up to five minutes (or so they advertise), making them comparable in playing time with Edison's diamond discs. The vertical recording allows for a uniform groove width, and in this case narrower than lateral records and their US vertical record counterparts. The longest playing time on the 12 sides I got was not exactly five minutes, but came close, 4 and a half.

I had never stumbled on those records before: they are certainly unusual and arguably unique with their long playing time, if we put aside Edison records that demanded a dedicated stylus and equipment to be played. All music is acoustically recorded, with a decent sound and the playing surfaces are quiet. I suppose that they did not last long in the market, the need to an soundbox adaptor being a handicap (I played mine on a Brunswick, the Ultona is great for such records).

Anyone there who knows more about Marathon records?

[Wagnerian]

Dear Carlos,
Marathon Records turn up from time to time here in the UK but they are certainly not common. Frank Andrews produced a history and listing of these records in the Talking Machine Review No.71 April 1987. Unfortunately, I'm unable to lay my hands on my copy at the mo. but Frank also covered Marathons in his "We Also Have Our Own Records" series in the CLPGS magazine, "For the Record" No.19 Winter 2006/7. That I have found and this is what Frank says - I have kept Frank's sometimes idiosyncratic grammar -:

"Marathon Records of the National Gramophone company Ltd. These discs were recorded with a vertical cut with a vee-shaped profile, the invention of the pioneer recording expert, Percy J. Packman. This cut allowed the spiralling groove to be more narrowly spaced and for steel needles to be used. Playing times were much extended. The masters appear to have been processed and the discs pressed by J.E.Hough & Co. Ltd at the Edison Bell works in Camberwell SE.
National Gramophone had been certified to begin business from August 3rd 1911. Unlike other companies' record sleeves, Marathons were printed at an angle of 90 degrees.
Using the flourish to the label name on the discs, it carried a colour code indicating the genre of the repertoire which had been recorded. The flourish printed in pink indicated a comic song. A dark blue flourish indicated a combined voices recording; a green flourish indicated and instrumental recording(I do not know if that colour was used for band or orchestral recordings) - band and orchestral recordings utilised a white flourish - TW-W; a red flourish indicated a solo voice recording.
In January 1913 the company reconstituted itself as the National Gramophone company (1913) Ltd and for a while had Sir Thomas Beecham as one of its Directors.
Under the new company, a record playing time of 16 minutes 25 seconds was achieved with a 12 inch disc, serial 12-2041. Serial 388 was the longest playing 10-inch Marathon which had Tom Kinniburgh, bass singing Henry Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" set to music by the Lancastrian oratorio and opera singer, Willoughby Hunter Weiss. The whole side would play for 5 minutes 28 seconds.
The records from the first, cost 2s 6d for the 10-inch size and 4s 0d for the 12-inch size. They played at 809 rpm. From the two companies, before failure, 478 different 10-inch discs were catalogued and 66 more in the 12-inch size.
Marathon loud and soft tone needles were sold in triangular shaped tines containing 200 or 1200 needles.
From the first company had come seven models of Marathon gramophones priced from £2-12s-6d to 16 guineas, four of which were table models with external horn. the second business failed in 1915. The assets, to be sold by auction, were announced in July."

And just to prove that Frank Andrews really was infallible, I've just played my copy of 388 The Village Blacksmith and it really does come out at 5mins 20 odd-secs from the needle going in the first groove to the dying away of the final piano chord.
Hope this helps
Tim W-W

[Wolfe]

The Marathons and Edisons aren't the only fine groove vertically cut records about.

There's also a small diameter American Marathon brand, lateral records. I have one by Jack Kaufman who was Irving Kaufman's brother. It's electrically recorded.

[epigramophone]

From a 1913 Marathon catalogue :

[epigramophone]

Last year at an antiques fair a dealer told me that he had "a gramophone with a big wooden horn" and implied that it might be for sale. He emailed me these pictures, from which I identified the machine as a Marathon with the Music Master horn.

I gave him all the information I had on Marathon and made what I considered to be a very fair offer for the machine. I never heard another word, but a fellow collector told me that what was probably the same machine had sold at auction. They say that no good deed goes unpunished, but if my informant was correct, the dealer netted less than I had offered.

[CarlosV]

Thanks Tim and Roger for the info on both the record label and the associated machine! It is quite impressive to learn that back in 1913 records with playing time of LPs were already in commercial production, 10 years before Edison came up with the long-playing diamond discs. Too bad this technology did not become a commercial success, it would allow records of complete symphonic movements and opera scenes in a single record size!

[CarlosV]

Last year at an antiques fair a dealer told me that he had "a gramophone with a big wooden horn" and implied that it might be for sale. He emailed me these pictures, from which I identified the machine as a Marathon with the Music Master horn.

I gave him all the information I had on Marathon and made what I considered to be a very fair offer for the machine. I never heard another word, but a fellow collector told me that what was probably the same machine had sold at auction. They say that no good deed goes unpunished, but if my informant was correct, the dealer netted less than I had offered.

Too bad you did not get it, Roger, the machine would look nice after some cleaning, especially with the nice horn. I suppose it is a rare machine, given that the manufacturer was only in business for a short time. The adapter looks very similar to the ones used in French machines, with the double swivel to play lateral and vertical records. The behavior of the seller is unfortunately quite common: after learning that his machine has something special, greed possesses his soul and he starts to think he has a treasure in his hands, until reality comes crashing.

[Lucius1958]

Paul Harrison's channel on YouTube often features his Marathon. Here it is, playing a Marathon record at 4:06:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt29ygAzqqM

- Bill