The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

As many of you know the Edison Company never offered discs in blocks above 84xxx and only one 10" disc was offered in the 84xxx block, that being 84001. 12" discs were not offered at all until the advent of the long play in 1926.

This record jacket and others like it would have you believe otherwise. I wonder what content if any was contemplated in those higher 10 and 12 inch blocks advertised here at up to $6.00 per disc?

They did record some extra-long Opera arias, a few of which have been reissued. 7+ minutes, recorded in London and circa 1910-11, as I recall. If Mr.Edison had been more sophisticated in his musical tastes (and I am NOT faulting him in any way: he was a 19th Century "Country Boy" and we can't expect him to have been anything else. Also, the Columbia & Victor offerings were exactly as weird as Edison's) he might have realized that 7-8 minute sides of fine chamber music & opera would have been a huge advance in American culture. I would happily play sets of Beethoven & Mozart on Edison discs, if they weren't a fantasy. He DID actually write that the "small scratch" would mean that records of string quartets etc would be 'very fine'. I think that the American record-buying public of that time was not ready ... as they still aren't.

/end rant/

The London stuff is very interesting indeed. I think one of reasons they didn't issue any of it was the change in studio technique. The company...and I expect primarily on the direction of old TAE himself...changed from using a fairly resonant studio to the " dead" studio sound( that is to say very little reverberation) which is familiar to anyone who plays Diamond Discs. This worked well for tone testing, in that the recordings don't overlay the sound of the studio on the voice.

jim

Lenoirstreetguy wrote:The London stuff is very interesting indeed. I think one of reasons they didn't issue any of it was the change in studio technique. The company...and I expect primarily on the direction of old TAE himself...changed from using a fairly resonant studio to the " dead" studio sound( that is to say very little reverberation) which is familiar to anyone who plays Diamond Discs. This worked well for tone testing, in that the recordings don't overlay the sound of the studio on the voice.

jim

But yet they had all that stuff recorded and outside of issuing a little bit of advertising on record sleeves, apparently never contemplated pressing some of that onto discs?

I agree with Edisone. Seems like a 12 inch Edison disc playing 6 or 7 minutes offering some real operatic talent would have been appealing. I mean even the early A-250s were designed to accommodate 12 inch discs in the bottom drawer...

I agree completely and even the C250s had a bottom drawer that would take a 12 inch disc.And 12 inch discs were not only recorded in London: they were done in New York and Paris as well. Ray Wile's disc matrix listing that appeared in the Talking Machine Review in the 70s lists some fascinating 12 inch sides done by Victor Herbert's Orchestra in New York. I would love to have those on Diamond Disc!