The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Yes, if you read Mike Sherman's book on Edison DDs, his chart shows that Edison's biggest years for DD sales were 1919 and 1920. Ironically, they sold best when their sound was at it's worst. I guess that's why they are so plentiful. After 1925, it went downhill fast just as the DDs were at their very best in sound and material.

So this lists 30,000 lateral records sold, compared to 8.5K DDs, for 1929. So, where are all the laterals? There ought to be more than a few- the REALLY late DDs do turn up.

Perhaps the fact that laterals are more prone to breakage further decreased their already small (compared to DD) number.