The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This may be a silly question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. In the 20+ years of collecting, I always wondered from the earliest days of phonograph manufacture, why green was chosen for phonograph turn tables? Does anybody have any insight on this? I'd really like to know.
Harvey Kravitz

Many years ago, I was told that it was because green, being the colour of leaves, complimented any wood that was used for the cabinet. Not sure of the truth in that though.

Barry

That does make somewhat sense to me. Another reason, which just adds another layer in between, could have been the easy availability on the market as green felt must have been highly demanded for billiard tables. In the end this forwards the color question to the tables.

An unverified answer was given here which basically underlines it to the green color of grass. A later edit gives a different reason, that green was the only color that mills offered at that time. However, there also had to be reason for that...

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_pool_table_felt_green

But it's indeed a very good question that for some reason I have never asked myself, maybe because I always found green to be really a very suitable color, rather than red for example.

Thanks for the answers. I never really thought of that. Any other comments will be greatly appreciated.
Harvey Kravitz

WDC wrote: A later edit gives a different reason, that green was the only color that mills offered at that time. However, there also had to be reason for that...

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_pool_table_felt_green

Of course, the 'availability' argument is not particularly persuasive, since piano and organ companies had been using red felt as well for some time.
Furthermore, some very early machines, such as the 'Montross' Gramophone and the 'Vitaphone', seem to have been originally furnished with red felt....

Perhaps green was slightly cheaper; or it was considered a better complementary color to the woodwork?

-Bill