Edison Disc Record

The Diamond Disc (English, "Diamond record" ) is a system developed by Thomas Edison records format.

Prehistory

Until the early 20th century the phonograph was the world's leading Tonträgerformat. However, the 1897 Berlin by Emil virtually completed and mainly of the company Victor heavily advertised Grammophon pressed with noticeable strength to the young consumer market. The end of Edison's roll format was foreseeable. In addition, in 1912 introduced the second largest roller manufacturer, the Columbia Graphophone Company, the production entirely on records in order.

A few years earlier had started the work on his own record format employee of the Edison laboratories. Dr. Jonas Aylsworth, former senior chemist and later advisor Edison, developed a special material as a basis for pressing records. In particular, it should be heat-resistant and shatterproof, a property which did not have the herkömmenlichen shellac records.

In 1911, the Edison Diamond Disc Phonograph presented to the public for the first time, the sale did not start until a year later.

Production and composition

We used a mixture of phenol, formaldehyde, wood dust and solvents and found it a very robust board core ago. This core was then coated with a coating layer of phenol- resin. The blank thus produced then got in his groove pressing process of a die.

In contrast to the side of the font used in almost all shellac Edison remained here at its subscript, that is, the useful signal was vertically in front in the groove. The Diamond discs had a normal diameter of about 25 cm (corresponding to 10 " ) and were approximately 5 mm thick. The rotation speed was 80 min -1. A Diamond Disc can not be played on a conventional gramophone, they would be damaged by the steel needle. Instead, a private player was sold by Edison, the so-called Diamond Disc Phonograph. Erroneously, these devices were advertised as " phonograph " ( = Tonschreiber ), although a recording option for the consumer was not available.

Instead of a steel needle used for sampling its Edison Diamond Discs Diamond Sapphire one, which worked with a very high coating weight of about 300 g. The maximum playing time was about four and a half minutes. The sound quality was significantly better compared to the shellac recordings and offered much more detail. In particular piano recordings sounded more convincing than a shellac disk. Thus, the Russian pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff made ​​already in April 1919 his first recordings on Edison Diamond Disc, but changed due to discrepancies in the publication shortly thereafter to Victor.

1926 Edison introduced the Long Playing Diamond Disc front, which at 80 min-1 up to 24 minutes (10 "diameter ) or 40 minutes ( 12" played in diameter) and an absolute novelty represented. The material and texture were identical to the normal Diamond disc, only the groove density had multiplied. The format had to be discarded after 1 year, as many customers did not want to pay the expensive upgrading their equipment and the sound quality compared to the normal Diamond Disc was also significantly worse and quieter. In addition, the grooves were very delicate and the plate wore out quickly.

Until 1927 all Diamond Discs were acoustically recorded, with the use of microphones or amplifiers, as Edison as a result of hearing loss, the benefits could not perceive. There were also concerns that the louder, electrical recording during playback could cause more wear on the disk, because the recording level was higher.

Decline

Despite the tonal advantages given to the gramophone records, the Edison Diamond Disc system could not prevail. The price of a Diamond Disc phonograph and the associated plates was significantly higher than for a conventional gramophone. In addition, it was also fixed on its own plate mark, as Edison was considering no collaboration or licensing to other manufacturers. Although some manufacturers set adapter devices available with which you could play normal shellac on the Edison device, but this was only further contribution to the loss of the format.

1928 took over Edison's son Charles the company and tried to save it in 1929 with the sale of ordinary shellac records, case gramophones and radios. During this time, the first electric Diamond Disc record player were produced with radio combination. However, the rescue of the company failed and in October of the same year, it was announced that the Edison Phonograph Company was no longer in business.

The format has also been followed by other manufacturers continue and today represents a technical curiosity