HistoryoftheInvention,Manufacture,andUseofInstantaneousDiscs.docVIP

Holly Robertson December 2, 2002 LIS 392.5 / Pavelka History of the Invention, Manufacture, and Use of Instantaneous Discs Between the soaring popularity of recorded sound on the disc of the early twentieth century and the high-fidelity recording capabilities of magnetic tape achieved after World War II lies the brief but enthusiastic niche of the instantaneous disc. Developed in the 1930s and used well into the late 1940s and 1950s as an inexpensive and accessible method of recording, the instantaneous disc was different from commercially distributed records. The instantaneous disc – sometimes called lacquers, acetates (quite erroneously, according to Peter Copeland), transcription discs, old time radio (OTR) recordings, Insta-discs, dubs, or reference recordings – was a “compromise of ease of engraving and playback life,” composed of softer materials than mass produced phonographs and thus more fragile and susceptible to the hazards of playback. Created using a special turntable either acoustically or magnetically, instantaneous discs created immediately available recordings that were unique, consumer-initiated sonic time capsules of a period in which media innovations were broadening and linking the world in a way quite similar to present day computer technology and the internet. Instantaneous discs appeared at the crossroads of cylinder and disc technology in sound recordings. Cylinders, the earliest form of sound recording and playback, were known as phonographs (only in the United States are flat discs now acceptably called such). Invented in 1877, Thomas Edison’s cylinder recorded sound in a spiral groove around the curved outer space of a hollow cylinder covered in tin foil. Alexander Graham Bell introduced a competitive update on the Edison cylinder in 1885, employing a wax cardboard cylinder instead of tin foil which offered improved sound quality and a more durable recording material. Cylinders were available for commercial sale by 1890, bu