[78-L] Pathe recording process

[Bryan Wright]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before (I couldn't find an easy  
way to search the 78-L archives), but I've been wondering again about  
Pathe's acoustic recording process of creating a large cylinder master  
which was then dubbed to disc format. My question is, why do it? Given  
the crude dubbing techniques of the day, what advantages did this  
extra step have over traditional direct-to-disc recording techniques?  
Was it done for legal purposes? (Perhaps a means of evading some  
patent -- though I thought that issue was resolved by the  
early-1920s.) Was it a way to have a safety back-up in case of  
problems when processing the disc master?

I understand from Sutton and Nauck's "American Record Labels"  
encyclopedia that Pathe originally developed the cylinder-to-disc  
dubbing process around 1906 to convert their large catalogue of  
cylinder recordings to the newly-adopted disc format, and that the  
process afforded some flexibility (the ability to convert a single  
cylinder master to a variety of cylinder and disc formats), but what  
would have been the benefit in the early 1920s when lateral-cut discs  
had become universally standard? Were the folks at Pathe considering  
re-entering the cylinder or vertical-disc markets kept alive by  
Edison? Or were they trying to remain "future-proof"? If the latter,  
they must have surely stored the cylinder masters long-term. Does  
anyone know what became of them?

Bryan W.