I saw an interesting item at an auction here in Portland. It was a Player piano with a phonograph built in. What was unusual was that the pumping of the piano also wound up the spring in the phonograph, there was no crank. so before you could play a record you had to pump it up, or play a roll. It w...

In reply to Ray Wilenzick, I'm another phonograph addict. I have two Edison Diamond Disk machines; one is for sale cheap. It's the Moderne model, made 1916-1918; and needs a new reproducer but the motor is fine. Anyone interested write for details. Larry Lobel

•Since I am not a phonograph collector and am not especially good at searching the web I thought I would ask here. It seems that phonograph topics are covered at times. I have purchased a Victor Schoolhouse Orthophonic phonograph (in quartered oak) that needs a lot of help. It is missing the followi...

•The first mail order auction of phonograph records and cylinders and associated items for 2000, run by the "Phonograph Society of NSW" in Australia closes on April 12. If anybody is interested in taking a look please go to:- http://welcome.to/phonographsocietynsw Then select the "Auctions" tab and ...

•With all the discussion about 78 RPM turntables, does anyone know why the RPM rates for the various record sizes were chosen? For example, does 78 RPM represent the best compromise at the time using the available technology to achieve reasonable frequency response, or was there another reason? The ...

•Regarding Richard Brandle's question about how turntable speeds were devised, I have also wondered the same thing. The 45 r.p.m. record was an RCA product, and the 33-1/3 r.p.m. LP album was Columbia's competing format. Both were introduced to the public in 1949-50. I can recall reading in an early...

•> Subject: Phonograph Turntable Speeds > With all the discussion about 78 RPM turntables, does anyone know > why the RPM rates for the various record sizes were chosen? For > example, does 78 RPM represent the best compromise at the time > using the available technology to achieve reasonable freque...

•I remember reading somewhere that 33-1/3 was the speed of the turntable on the Vitaphone talking picture projector. The projector mechanism also drove the turntable sitting on the back and the combination provided 20 (+/-) minutes of audio for the 20 (+/-) minute reel of film. George Bogatko http:/...

•The 33-1/3 RPM phonograph disc was initiated by the Vitaphone company. The sound tracks for their early talkies were on 16-inch discs, played at 33-1/3 RPM with a 2.5 mil stylus. The 33-1/3 RPM figure came from a power take-off in the mechanism that moved the film through the projector. This inform...

•All this talk of turntable speeds reminds me of a very short-lived experiment with 16.667 rpm. Does anyone else recall it or is my brain playing tricks? I am as sure as I can be that in my early days of collecting (1960s) I saw decks with this speed available. Never saw any records though. Roger Wa...

•It has been written here that the original use for 33.33 rpm discs was in providing soundtracks for Vitaphone motion pictures. Could it be that this speed was chosen in part to simplify the mathematics involved in synchronizing the disc with the moving film, the speed being roughly 100 revolutions ...

•A great amount of research involving musical keys and tuning forks has been done to determine just how close to 78 rpm the recordings of the first quarter of the last century really turned. Even though Victor said their discs ran at 78, and Columbia said 80 (Edison too??), the vast majority of earl...

•[ Roger Waring inquired about 16-2/3 rpm phono discs. ] I believe that the cutting of personal discs with voice messages rather than hi-fi quality sound was done at 16.667 rpm. I thought that people in the armed forces used this service to send messages back home probably because in those days most...

•Yes, there were some 16.x RPM records made, I don't know the exact speed, for some reason I want to say 16-7/8, but I don't know if that is right or not. I remember having some children's records when I was a kid that run at 16.x; my wife still has hers, they are 8" I think. Also, I think that the ...

•This is in response to Roger Waring and his mention of 16 rpm turntables in the Sun, 9 Jul 2000 MMD. I once had a couple of professional Thorens (? I think) turntables, circa late 1950's, that had 78, 45, 33 and 16 rpm speed options on the speed selector knob. I never had a use for the 16 rpm speed...

•In answer to Roger Waring's question yesterday. Yes, there was a 16 rpm record speed back in the 1960's. At that time, my mother had found some records at that speed in a garage sale. They were children's Bible stories: one was "Jona and the Whale", if I remember, narrated by Burl Ives. I think the...

•Another reason for the necessity of a variable speed drive, is that many records were deliberately speeded up or slowed during recording, and editing to make the performer sound faster, or hit higher notes, or fit the time. Many 33's also vary, and between tracks. I learned by playing along, and th...

•Terry Hathaway wrote: "I do not recall ever seeing a consumer-grade turntable with the 16 rpm speed, however." Almost every inexpensive turntable made in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s had speed 16 rpm. I have never seen any discs but believe that they were intended for speech only. Jeffrey Bori...

•I have an old turntable with a 16-rpm speed which is taking up space in my junk room. I understand they were used (in the UK, at any rate) for talking books for the blind. David Snelling Isle of Man, British Isles (UK)

•Hi All, As a (teen-age) mail-man in the late 1940s my faint memory recalls delivering large, 16-inch 'transcription' disks. I believe they were called "Talking Books for the Blind". John Spradley Sylmar CA