The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Thanks for posting the video !

I'll have to dig-out my piano-tuning bag and compare to my forks / Korg tuner.

I wonder Edison used to produce the tone for this recording? My guess would be some sort of organ pipe ?

At 80 the pitch is indeed 440. The Edisonic sounds the closest to my fork ...
( on my cheap speakers...)

Jim

Some years ago, I got to read a treatise on the new standard A=440 pitch by the owner of the Deagan Chime Co. His conclusion was that the pitch didn't really change much at all, because the pitch designation included the temperature of the vibrating string, chime, etc. and A=440 was set at a higher temperature than the old A=435, making the difference academic, rather than practical. I was also told that Steinway overbuilt their pianos, so that they could be safely tuned as high as A=450 . I wouldn't want to, but the Vienna Philharmonic was known in the mid 20th century to tune high, about A=446.

Valecnik wrote:One of these records just sold on eBAY with the original jacket and instructions. I saved the copy of the instructions but they are a BMP file and won't upload here. If somebody knows how to convert and post a bmp, I can sent the picture of the instructions to your email address.

The pitch is called "A International" in the instructions.

Valecnik, would you mind sending me a copy of the .bmp file to my email. I can convert it to be posted here...

Valecnik wrote:One of these records just sold on eBAY with the original jacket and instructions. I saved the copy of the instructions but they are a BMP file and won't upload here. If somebody knows how to convert and post a bmp, I can sent the picture of the instructions to your email address.

PM sent.

Clay

Here is the photo of the instructions from Valecnik.

Clay

FloridaClay wrote:Here is the photo of the instructions from Valecnik.

Clay

Typical Edison too. Don't waste anything. Notice how they just slapped the label on top of whatever was underneath.

This record is in my collection and here's a slightly better to read photo of the instructions, which I just quickly shot. The sleeve is only a fragment but the instructions sheet is fortunately intact:
And yes, I can confirm too, it's definitely 400 Hz at 80rpm. Spectral analysis while played on modern turntable did clearly show this.

Hi Norman,

Are you sure it's 400 cycles per second?

I thought it was 440.

Thanks, Chuck