|
With
Thomas Alva
Edison acquiring the Columbia Phonograph Company
back in 1890. then round about Ten years after Edison
acquired the Colombia Phonograph Company, Emil Berliner
Gramophone Company merged with The Victor Company
in 1900 a few years later the company developed
into the famous Radio Corporation of America that
became known as RCA Victor. Thomas Edison's
first phonographs were hand cranked, which made
a single standard speed virtually impossible, there
was always going to be different speeds with hand
cranking system. The listener to record would cranked
the machine at whatever speed "sounded right," which
usually worked out to around 80 RPM That was slow
enough to get five minutes of material then, as
now, the average length of a popular song onto one
of Thomas Edison's five inch cylinders.
When Emile Berliner invented
his flat disc record in 1888, he designed it to
meet the loose standards of the Thomas Edison cylinder
five minutes of playing time at 70 to 80 RPM. Years
later in 1931, RCA Victor decidedly ruined an attempt
to be the first recording company to put
33
1/3 RPM system on the market, but they got
cold feet and withdrew the attempt to sell
33
1/3 RPM. Then Columbia Records introduced
Dr. Peter Goldmark's new "microgroove"
33
1/3 RPM system again in 1948. Columbia
cannily pushed the new 12inc
33
1/3 "LPs" to classical musical collectors,
purposely aimed at the university longhair listener
who now could relax to an entire movement of a symphony
without having the aggravation of getting
up out of his seat every five minutes to change
discs. Just as Emile Berliner had tailored his flat
disc to meet the standard of the Thomas Edison cylinder
phonograph.
|
