Show Me Your Berliner Disc!

[EdisonSquirrel]

Fascinating! Was "song" recorded by "singer"?

How I wish that Berliner discs were easier to find. I only have three, which I purchased in New York some 25+ years ago. I got two of them for $20 apiece in an old record and phono shop called "Waves."



Rocky

[phonogfp]

The earliest American Berliner disc I've been able to obtain is this one from March, 1895. It retains the typeface found on 1894 recordings:



Another early typeface is sometimes encountered:



For some reason in late 1895, the conventional typeface design was occasionally not employed. Instead, the following was inscribed with a fine stylus, "Patented October 25, 1895 and other patents." I have a couple of these, and they're difficult to shoot. I chose "Sidewalks of New York" because the same title was the subject of another thread...



The hard rubber composition was proving unsatisfactory, so Berliner and Frank Seaman were experimenting by having various firms press records from various materials. Celluloid was revisited, but was found to be not durable enough. This is apparently an experimental pressing (it has virtually no wear) from celluloid. It's very light, and somewhat brown in color:


My next installment will focus on some of the mistakes that sometime occurred in the pressing plant...

George P.

[WDC]

Certainly several holy grails, George!

[phonogfp]

Back in 1985 I wrote an article in the Antique Phonograph Monthly on the "errors" sometimes found on early discs. Since this is a Berliner thread, I'll limit these to Berliners only, and I won't cover misspellings or other typos.

Oops...!


Ouch...!


"What did you say that title was?" It doesn't show so well in the photo, but the original title was ground off and this one stamped in the valley...



Well, well, Photobucket won't let me post an interesting title here... It keeps posting another image, although I've tried 6 times now... Sorry - I'm giving up... It was "Ravings of a Maniac", which is similar to the "Ravings of John McCullough" as sometimes found on Edison cylinder. Blame Photobucket!

This one isn't a mistake at all, but an early kiddie record:



I'll wrap up this installment with something quite rare; An 8.5" Berliner sub-master. This is ¼" thick, and looks like a Berliner record glued to a miniature Diamond Disc. Never meant for sale, of course...



George P.

[phonogfp]

I'll wrap up my little Berliner-fest with some of the company's last pressings.

Berliner records were being copied/pirated by Vitaphone, and extra holes were being drilled in Berliner pressings for use with the Zonophone. To make these activities more difficult, Berliner began adding a Limited Use notice in relief to finished pressings:


These were added to the right side of the label area as well...


There were even experimental discs with the notice embossed in the record. (I have two of these; both with untrimmed edges and almost twice as thick as a typical Berliner.) I have not seen these embossed notices on issued Berliner records, but would welcome that knowledge:


Oh, what the heck - - I like records that celebrate themselves or the company that made them. Here's a December 1896 recording of "On The Gramophone," and an August 1898 recording of "Murphy's Gramophone":



Sorry - Photobucket won't let me show "Murphy's Gramophone" either. Maybe there's a better way???

Hope you enjoyed the discs I was able to post!

Best to all -

George P.

[solophoneman]

Wow, thanks for posting these marvelous old icons from the distant past. I have been fascinated with the really early historic discs since I started collecting. I will try to post a few more really interesting ones soon.

[Neophone]

Folks,

Thank you all for the fantastic scans and photos. This is a fascinating thread.
Sadly I haven't yet acquired a Berliner disc myself. The two oldest disc records I own are a 7" Columbia and a 7" Victor:

The Columbia was recorded in '01 and this pressing dates from about '03 according to one collector I spoke with a while back if memory serves.





I would guess this Victor was recorded in late 1900 or '01, but again this is probably '02 pressing

The Columbia is announced, but the announcement is virtually destroyed. I'm with Bill in thinking the poor condition of many of these early records is partially to blame on the early front mount tone-arms and primitive reproducers. I remember another knowledgeable collector telling me back when I first got into this hobby that many of the earliest disc records I'd find would have the very beginning heavily worn-partially due to the honing of the needle, but mostly due to the bad tracking of the front mount machines. Has anyone else noticed or heard of this?

Regards,
John

[Starkton]

First take, recorded June 1st, 1899 of 0172W from George's collection:

Second take, recorded September 15th, 1899 of 0172W from my collection:

Pirate pressing of 0172W (Second take). Brick red pressing manufactured by the American Talking Machine Record Co. Both recordings were reproduced simultaneously (right channel/left channel) and the sound curves digitally laid on top of each other. It was proved that both are identical, except for the last second which was not recorded with the brick red specimen.

In the September 1899 Phonoscope issue, published in December 1899, Emile Berliner accused the American Talking Machine of pirating his masters - quite rightly as could be proved with following specimen.

[EdisonSquirrel]

Here's a Berliner I just found on Youtube--J. W. Myers singing "Flee as a bird."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf1Nt4biagI



Rocky

[gramophoneshane]

Wow! I had no idea there were so many label variations on Berliners. "IF" I've counted right, there's 14 so far.