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I just bought a small batch of Edison Diamond Disc records - all earlier etched labels, not paper. One of them is recorded on one side only - totally smooth on the other side with just three deep dimples. Was this a factory mistake? 3959 is stamped on the edge.

briankeith wrote:I just bought a small batch of Edison Diamond Disc records - all earlier etched labels, not paper. One of them is recorded on one side only - totally smooth on the other side with just three deep dimples. Was this a factory mistake? 3959 is stamped on the edge.

You may want to read this.. .
http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... sc#p114546

Matrix 3959 is listed as being the explanatory talk for "Vissi D'Arte" from the opera Tosca. Without further information, you either have a test pressing of the talk (which could be single sided as some were) or you just have the regular issue of 82107 with no label on it which was the norm for etched label discs with the talk on one side.

Sean

Usually "one-sided" Diamond Discs have no label on the backside but do have grooves containing an "explanatory talk". However, some true one-sided DDs do exist - I have one. Mine is a non-commercial telegraph practice record, sent in the obsolete landline Morse code rather than in the international Morse code. I have yet to find a ham radio operator that can "copy" it.

The tuning record was also one sided and test pressings exist in single sided form as well, I've got quite a few of them. Also, some of the earliest operatic DDs were also single sided.

So Brian, can you elaborate on what yours is?

Sean