[78-L] David Hall the prophet

[DAVID BURNHAM]

Either Hall or Irving Kolodin also predicted the LP but thought it would be on 
16-inch discs (can't find the reference right now).

dl

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It wouldn't take much of a seer in the 40s to anticipate the LP.  David Hall would probably be aware of the transcriptions issued by RCA in the early 30s, (though he was only 15 at the time).  Surprisingly, in the 1941 Record Book, there's no reference to LPs at all but he does foresee the use of magnetic tape and wire long before the machines came to America from Germany after the war.

In 1947, he writes:

....we can look forward in the immediate future to many improvements in disc records.  Not only will the use of vinylite in manufacture make feasible the recording of a wider range of frequencies, but there are strong possibilities that methods will be worked out whereby fifteen minutes or more of music can be accomodated on a single record side.  This has been the case for many years with radio transcriptions, most of which are recorded on 16-inch discs revolving at 33 1/3 r.p.m. as against the standard 78 r.p.m. 10-inch and 12-inch records for home use.  Already there are plans afoot to market such transcriptions in large quantities through retail channels, and to make available turntable-pick-up assemblies on which to play them through one's present radio or radio-phonograph.  At the moment, two-speed (33 1/3 & 78 r.p.m.) turntables of good design are fairly high in price, (one made by the Radio Music Corp. of East Portchester, Conn. sells for
 around $80), because greater precision of workmanship is required in their manufacture.  However, if 16-inch transcriptions do begin to find a mass market, we shall undoubtedly be able to obtain well-designed, inexpensive turntable-pick-up assemblies on which to play them.  Naturally, if modifications are made in either speed or pitch (number of grooves per inch) of 12 inch discs to allow of longer playing time, it will mean that new-type turntables, pick-ups, or both, will have to be made available to accommodate the new-type records.

(the Record Book, 1947, p. 177)

He dances around, but doesn't mention the very single development which allowed Columbia's Lp to succeed, (and by its absence, RCA's transcriptions to fail).  That is the microgroove technology.  As we all know, all other things being equal, a 78 should sound better than an Lp because of its faster recording speed.  However, the two specs which determine the high frequency capability of a disc recording is playing speed, (by which I mean the speed at which the surface travels under the stylus, not r.p.m.), and stylus diameter, so while a 78 rotates slightly more than twice as fast as an Lp, its stylus is 3 times bigger, therefore higher frequencies can be recorded on an Lp than on a 78.  A 3 mil groove would have to be recorded at 100 r.p.m. to sound as good as an Lp.


db