Paul’s brilliant demonstration began in 1877 when Edison announced his invention of the Phonograph. Originally recording on cylinders wrapped in tinfoil, The design was based on a machine to record Morse Code! During the period 1877 – 1887, while Edison was preoccupied with electric light, others improved on his Phonograph. Alexander Graham Bell and associates substituted wax cylinders for those wrapped in tinfoil. That improved fidelity and could be shaved and re-used. At that time, the Columbia company began.

In 1888 Edison produced the Perfected Phonograph using wax cylinders. But, wax wore out quickly and was fragile and difficult to duplicate. In 1887 – 1888 Emile Berliner patented the Gramophone. Initially not very successful due to poor sound and hand winding that produced inconsistent speeds.

Moving on to 1888 – 1900, various materials were used for discs, eventually settling on shellac. By 1900, Berliner transfers patents to Johnson who renamed the company ‘The Victor Talking Machine Company.’ All they needed was a memorable trademark. In 1899 via their English subsidiary came Nipper, the famous dog looking into the horn of the machine.

During 1900 – 1914, Cylinders lose ground to the cheaper and louder Discs which also have better repertoire. In 1912 Edison launched a new but incompatible disc system. However the system had good sound quality but noisy surfaces and the user had to buy Diamond stylus! But at least you could have famous artists in your home but only for a playing tune of five minutes.

During the early 1920s there was stagnation, no major technical advances for years, although small disks were released to reduce the cost, but the discs were still limited to five minutes playing time.

Paul then displayed several discs and played them on a modern player. There was one from Pathé (1912), Edison (pre 1921), and Mimosa (1925) which did sound the best.

In 1923 the World Record Controller increased playing time by attempting constant linear velocity, although with rather poor results. In 1924 Western Electric developed electrical recording system with much better sound quality. During 1926 Edison experimented with long playing discs at three times playing time but it was not a success.

At the time of the Wall Street Crash in 1929 Phonographs and Gramophones were a luxury in America. Edison exits the phonograph business and RCA bought Victor. In England Columbia and HMV merged to form EMI and Edison Bell and various smaller firms went out of business. During 1930s there were attempts to reduce costs by making various sizes of discs, and some of the plastic discs try to increase playing time . Most of the 1930s plastic discs have not aged well and are difficult to play but those made with shellac have no problems.

Paul then played three more discs: one from Edison Bell (1929), one from Durium (1932) and Columbia (1928) The demo showed the progress in sound quality through the years, Columbia sounding the best. Also during the 1930, RCA attempted to market long playing records in the US (running at 33 1/3 RPM while A. D. Blumlein at EMI researched stereo recording in the UK. Both developments were too far ahead of their time.

During 1948 Columbia introduced the LP record with microgrooves at 0.001 inch, and steel needles gave way to sapphire and diamond. Shellac gave way to Vinyl and stylus pressure was measured in Grams not Ounces! The next year in 1949 RCA released the 7 inch 45 RPM record.

1950 In the UK, Decca introduced the LP record using their Full Frequency Range Recording developed during WW2. 1950S also saw the introduction of multi speed turntables. Later during the 1050s, LP discs opened up the market to HI-Fi Enthusiasts. Major labels agreed a standard for stereo using the Blumlein system and it was found that mono cartridges were not compatible with stereo records.

A new market opened up to Teenagers in 1960, Pop groups produced 45 RPM discs playable on light weight portable players.

1970s saw Quadraphonic systems (three systems!) but the public did not take to it and in 1982, Sony and Philips introduce Compact Discs producing perfect sound forever and 74 minutes playing time.. New LPs slowly disappear.

A lively Q&A followed till closing time.

MyThanks to Paul Schimmel for providing all this info and Thanks also to Brian Farey, G8GHR for the display of a few of his record players