Brian started by thanking Paul for last week’s first class talk. He thought it would be good to follow up with a dip into his LP collection which he had recorded onto mini discs for convenience. He said “at the end of this I hope you will be saying I didn’t expect to hear that!” He said he could generalise the recordings on 78 rpm shellac as either classical or light entertainment such as Love’s Old Sweet Song from 1933 by Musical Dawson’s Famous Choir of Canaries.

Brian said I don’t think you can under estimate the importance of the LP as they became available in the early 1950s, if only because there was very little other means of entertainment. The BBC only had one TV channel and three stations on the radio.

Recordings in the 1970s began producing LPs of early radio broadcasts. One from Radiola contained a number of speeches by Hitler and also the last broadcast by Lord Haw Haw. Included and played by Brian was Charlie and his Orchestra from Berlin in February 1942, a version of ‘Daisy Daisy’ with many word changes to fit Nazi propaganda.

Brian also had a recording by Tokyo Rose from August 1944. He said “by the way, Tokyo Rose was not just one person, but many, broadcasting Japanese propaganda during the war.” There were many other discs produced during the war by the Americans featuring famous people like Bing Crosby, Glen Miller etc. for the American forces. All during the talk Brian played excerpts from many of these recordings.

Moving on to 1972 a BBC recording of Yuri Gagarin in space in 1961 was played followed by the first American in orbit, John Glen in 1962

Following on in the demo were recordings of the sounds and murmurs of the heart. Most likely for students but probably not popular with the public. Also a recording of limited interest, ‘How to pass your driving test’. That was followed by Bob Newhart with his deadpan delivery style giving his version of “The Driving instructor” had every one in stitches. Another unexpected recording on LP was Morse Code. I expect that would be a very difficult way to learn.

At this point, Brian said ‘ I thought you might like to see some of my collection of Morse keys displayed nearby on the table.

Brian showed an American LP from 1976 called ‘Everything you need to know to operate CB Radio’, Mostly jargon! Other unusual subjects recorded on LP included the story of the Lone Ranger and how he got his name. The broadcasting began in 1949 and ended 1957 in America.

At the end of 1950 the BBC started broadcasting various pop programmes including Juke Box Jury with David Jacobs and the Six Five Special which began in February 1957. These were included in a series of BBC LPs called “40 Years of Television “ issued in 1976. Brian played the “Six Five Special”. Of course the BBC are known for their comedy programmes in the 60s and 70s, many were put onto LPs. For instance: Dad’s Army from 1973. every one remembers “don’t tell him pike!”Then Brian closed with The Two Ronnies.

So it’s Goodnight from them and Goodnight from me, Thank you.

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