The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Well, I'm certainly enjoying THIS thread!

John, I agree with you about The Fabulous Phonograph being more "human" than Tinfoil to Stereo. I still have my first-edition copy with the dust jacket that I pored through when I was nineteen. Descriptions such as the one you mentioned plus many others really injected romance and human interest into the talking machines stacked in my bedroom back in those days. Roland Gellatt didn't delve quite as deeply into technical history as I would have liked, and he neglected to mention some of his sources, but yet there are very few mistakes to be found in the book. Gellatt was more of a record guy I think, and his focus on recording artists of the day and how they were recorded would naturally lead him down the Victor path. For all that, he didn't neglect the machines. I have a soft spot for The Fabulous Phonograph. If anyone on the board hasn't read it, they really should - it's a fun book.

George P.

I remember looking over and over again at those poor quality "plates" in "Tinfoil to..." (purchase new hardcopy 1977 second edition $19.95) and wondering what some of those machines must really look like. I could not even conceive how some of them could actually work.

Now with George & Tim's books and Hazelcorn's Frow's, Baumbachs, that has totally changed. We owe them alot. I'm guessing they all reaped significantly less rewards from their endeavors than the author of the "Harry Potter" series.

JohnM wrote:Jim Walsh and Aida Favia Artsay's (Ruth Rosenberg) columns in Hobbies Magazine.

I think their articles are really fun reading, and are still an excellent resource.

If someone were to collect all those articles in a book like they did with Herman Klein And The Gramophone I'd be running with wallet open.

phonogfp wrote: I have a soft spot for The Fabulous Phonograph. If anyone on the board hasn't read it, they really should - it's a fun book.

I've had my (now worn) paperback copy for years, and still read parts of it from time to time, to refresh my historical knowledge and because Gelatt has such an engaging style that flows like water off a duck's back.
If someone new to phonographs and/or 78's were to ask me of a good book to start with, I'd have no problem recommending it, still.

When I first started collection, back in the mid '50s, the only book I could find at our local library had the authoritive title "The Recording and Reproduction Of Sound". It had only a little historical information but it was all I could find besides Hobbies Magazine. A couple of years ago I did a national search and had my local library borrow it from some dusty university library. It was published in the late '40s and contains a great deal of information about acetate disc recording. I found it to be very interesting and it would have been very useful if I still had my Rek-O-Kut overhead lathe disc recorder.

I first read Tinfoil to Stereo in 1970; a "liberated" library copy borrowed from an acquaintance. I bought the book when it was reissued in the "revised and annotated form". It's funny to read the future of recorded sound as they pictured it then when CDs were no more than 5 years away and no one saw them coming. Actually, I like the book, for, in spite of its vertical cut bias, errors and general tediousness, it still contains a wealth of useful information.

George, I was there at Union when you and Tim made your first book available to us and I still have the copy you and Tim signed for me. I say now as I told you both then: Thank you for putting these books together. Collectors old and new have incredible resources available to us because of the efforts of two of you.

Jim

WOW! Did I start something or what? I would have never known about these books, without the help of the internet. George, thank you and Tim for writing these books. We all appreciate it.


Thank You!

Paul

You're all very welcome! It's truly wonderful to learn that people are enjoying them.

George P.

Can we ALL have a check then????.One for you,two for me.......... .

I bought George and Tim's phonograph books as they were released. The first one came out just after I started collecting phonographs. I thoroughly enjoyed it and bought the rest. I keep them under my side of the bed and while my wife reads her novels I thumb through the books. Even though I have had them for a few years I still look through one or more of them on a weekly basis. I only wish there was another in the works! - John P.

I can't let this topic pass without a comment about "Tinfoil to Stereo". I realize that this was one of the first books about phonographs to be available, and so it was widely consumed by eager collectors. But as already mentioned, this book is rampant with errors. Not the least of which is that Welch is so pro-Edison and anti-Victor that this obvious bias is embarrasing when viewed from today's perspective and knowledge base. Consequently, much of the "technical" assertions that Welch pontificates on regarding the "superiority" of vertical versus lateral modulation is just plain baloney. It's wrong and it has been proven wrong in multitudinous technical journals in all the years since the publication of this book.

Long story short - lateral monophonic analog recording is inherently technically superior to vertical in several very demonstrable and mathematically provable ways. Which invalidates a lot of the technical and musical malarkey that Welch exudes in his book. So I would advise taking Welch's assertions with the appropriate grain of salt.

On the other hand, "The Fabulous Phonograph" is a very pleasant and fairly accurate read. I recommend it. And I also strongly support the entire collection of books written by Tim and George. Their research and combined knowledge is second to none on the topics of phonographs, accessories and paraphernalia.

I have both a first edition copy of "The Fabulous Phonograph," and the 1977 edition of FTTS. I agree on all counts, but especially liked the description in "The Fabulous Phonograph" of customer reactions during the transition period from acoustic to electrical recording.

Some customers reported that the new process records sounded like:

"a cat fight in a mustard mill...."
"a free lunch counter...."


BTW, I noticed on bookfinder.com -- http://www.bookfinder.com/ -- that there are still a number of used copies of "The Fabulous Phonograph" available for those who don't have a copy. Prices still seem pretty reasonable.