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I just saw a twenty-four minute 78 rpm record on eBay. I am completely ignorant about Edisons - how was this done? And when? Fascinating stuff!

Nat wrote:I just saw a twenty-four minute 78 rpm record on eBay. I am completely ignorant about Edisons - how was this done? And when? Fascinating stuff!

it's an Edison Long Play. about 400 TPI and 80 RPM.

Nat wrote:I just saw a twenty-four minute 78 rpm record on eBay. I am completely ignorant about Edisons - how was this done? And when? Fascinating stuff!

The groove thread pitch was three times finer than the standard Edison Diamond Disk record -- 450 tpi versus 150 tpi. (As a comparison, modern LP vinyl records were cut about 200 tpi.) Therefore, even at 80 rpm, a 10 inch record played three times longer, i.e., 12 minutes average per side. The 12 inch records played even longer, at 20 minutes per side. The records were marketed in 1926 and were a commercial failure; the grooves were too fine to withstand a heavy acoustic reproducer, and soon the records would skip.

VintageTechnologies wrote:

Nat wrote:I just saw a twenty-four minute 78 rpm record on eBay. I am completely ignorant about Edisons - how was this done? And when? Fascinating stuff!

The groove thread pitch was three times finer than the standard Edison Diamond Disk record -- 450 tpi versus 150 tpi. (As a comparison, modern LP vinyl records were cut about 200 tpi.) Therefore, even at 80 rpm, a 10 inch record played three times longer, i.e., 12 minutes average per side. The 12 inch records played even longer, at 20 minutes per side. The records were marketed in 1926 and were a commercial failure; the grooves were too fine to withstand a heavy acoustic reproducer, and soon the records would skip.

A great idea, though. One of those where the idea was ahead of the ability do it properly. How did they sound?

All Edison Long Play records were dubbed, so the volume is lower than one would expect from, say, a later non-electrically recorded regular Diamond Disc (say, later 51000 series). There are a few videos on YouTube, but not many. Here are some snippets of a few, recorded directly from the horn of an Edison LP console. I intended to post some Edison Long Plays with better audio quality on YouTube, but life keeps getting in the way.

Egmont - Overture - Sodero's Band (10004-R) Hello Bluebird - Kaplan's Melodists (10006-R) Merry Widow Selections - B.A. Rolfe and His Palais D'Or Orchestra (not a skip, I edited from the opening directly to the waltz) I'll request that this topic be re-directed to the "Music" section.