220 



ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN" INSTITUTION, 1908. 



Fig. 11. — Sections of needle point. 



as 200,000 needles daily. The needles are now hardened by temper- 

 ing, being heated in open pans, almost to white heat, and then sud- 

 denly cooled; this is a most important process. They then have to 

 be polished. This is done by packing the needles into bags or sacks 

 and rolling them to and fro for days on a reciprocating table; the 



constant friction of the 

 needles against one another 

 polishes them bright and 

 smooth. 



I will now deal with the 

 series of operations which go 

 to make a finished disk rec- 

 ord of the Berliner or gram- 

 ophone type. The person 

 who is making the record 

 sings or plays immediately 

 before the mouth of a horn 

 or funnel, the object of the 

 horn being to concentrate the 

 energy of the sound waves 

 upon the recording diaphragm. At the narrow end of the horn is the 

 recording sound box and machine and its attendant expert. The 

 artist is on one side of a screen and the machine on the other, for in 

 all the recording laboratories of talking-machine manufacturers the 

 secrets of the operation of recording are most carefully guarded. I 

 have here a sketch (fig. 12) drawn by a famous singer of himself 

 making a record. The 

 making of a good rec- 

 ord is not so simple 

 a matter for the artist 

 as might appear; he 

 often has to make sev- 

 eral trials before he 

 learns just how to sing 

 into the trumpet, how 

 near to stand, etc. 

 When singing loud, 

 high notes he must not 

 come too near the 

 mouth of the funnel, as otherwise the vibrations will be too powerful 

 and the result will be what is technically known as " shattering." 

 Wlien the artist is singing or playing to an accompaniment another 

 horn connected with the same sound box is often provided so that the 

 person of the artist may not obstruct the sound waves of the orchestra 

 or other accompaniment. 



Fig. 12. — Making 



gramophone record. 



