[78-L] 78rpm speed

[Geoffrey Wheeler]

As to when the term “78” came into practice I don’t know, but I do know 
that when I began playing records as a child in the late 1930s, I knew 
they were “78s” and there was never any mystery about what they were. 
For perhaps the first few years of the LP Era, LPs were called 
“microgroove” and “long-playing” because that was what “LP” stood for. 
Various record companies even cataloged their LPs using the prefix “MG” 
to designate “microgroove.” As record companies began identifying their 
LPs as “33-1/3” people shortened that to “33,” and to some older 
records collectors today LPs are known as “33s.” To younger collectors, 
they are. of course, “vinyl.” I am personally uncomfortable with that 
term because not all LPs were made of vinyl.