The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

No jokes, just research. I have scanned and published an interview with Karl Ehricke, who worked for Edison Inc. He describes in the interview the methods used to find where the surface noise was coming from, the tremendous amount of work involved in auditioning records, the methods of deciding which batches would be shipped, and which ones would be destroyed, and ...eventually, WHY those discs sounded so noisy, and HOW the problem was fixed!

30+ pages, in Adobe .PDF format. On my website, EdisonDiamondDisc dot com

Thanks, I'll have to give it a read. I just received "The Collectors Guide to Edison Records" which gives the impression the 1917-20 discs are practically unlistenable, even when pristine. It makes you wonder how they managed to sell as many as they did during that period. John

Wyatt, truly a remarkable website you've built. I spent almost an hour in it (including the employee interview). I don't recall seeing the photo of the woman perched on the C250 used in any advertising of the day...

Wonderful article. As a record maker, I found it enlightening! I have the asme problmes sometimes.

Wyatt, thank you for your web site and the reproduced 1973 interview with one of Edison's phonograph men. Wow, the "Old Man" really was quite active and still possessed of incredible insight and application as late as the WWI era; his elimination of the disc surface noises of the period is remarkable. Deaf, but still possessed of adequate eyesight and able to work a microscope.

A fascinating read Wyatt. Certainly that there was surface noise was not due to a lack of dedication and diligence by "the old man."

Clay