216 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



The Volta people had patented broadly the system of cutting or 

 tracing a sound line in a solid body, so that even Berliner's own 

 method was within the scope of their patent, and from the point of 

 view of patent rights, Mr. Berliner was at a disadvantage. More- 

 over, the reproduction he obtained was far behind that given by the 

 phonograph and graphophone, for though in the latter instruments 

 the sound waves were distorted, there was a comparative absence of 

 scratch. Very different is the position to-day when in the United 

 States at any rate practically the whole of the enormous trade in 

 disk machines is subject to a Berliner patent No. 534543, wdiich covers 

 the use of a freely swinging sound arm or horn, carrying the sound 

 box and guided throughout the playing of the record entirely by the 

 sound lines. 



It was not until the end of 1894 that the manufacture commenced 

 in the United States of a disk record which quickly made the gramo- 

 phone popular, and may be re- 

 garded as the starting point of 

 the industry of to-day. Instead 

 of a record made from an 

 etched metal original, a disk 

 record could now be offered to 

 the public made by a new pro- 

 cess Avhich allowed many hun- 

 dreds of good facsimile copies 

 to be made from one master 

 record. This process consisted 

 in cutting the first record in a 

 disk-shaped blank of wax-like 

 material, obtaining a solid 

 metal negative thereof by electro-deposition, and pressing copies of 

 the original from this negative or matrix in a material which was 

 hard at normal temperatures, but became jolastic under heat. 



About this time a number of inventors began to turn their attention 

 to the improvement of the machine, to keep pace with the vast 

 improvements which were being made in the records. The machine 

 was provided with an efficient governor or speed regulator to insure 

 a uniform speed of rotation of the turntable. Next the hand-driven 

 machine was abolished altogether, and a machine substituted which 

 was driven by a spring motor. To-day the better-class machines are 

 furnished with a motor which will run fifteen minutes or more for one 

 winding of the motor. The speed regulator was furnished with an 

 indicator to show at what speed the machine was running. It will 

 easily be understood how essential it is that the record on reproduc- 

 tion should be revolved at exactly the same pace as the blank on 

 which the original record was cut, if the production is really to be a 



Fig. 



8. — Recording and reproducing sound 

 boxes, old type. 



