[78-L] Long length Billy Murray acoustical Victors

[Michael Biel]

It is too bad that the recently retired Elsie Garrison thought that
helping decode the ledger markings "would be a most time consuming
project".  As someone who is himself retired, I can tell you that TIME
is the commodity I have!  I wonder if some of the box, horn and
connector codes might be interpreted thru the Sooey diary that has been
posted on the Mainspring Press site.  Much of it might just be number
assigned to a specific piece of hardware, but dimensions might also be
some of the meanings.

As for the threads per inch as indicated by the numbers following the
letters, that does indeed seem consistent, with BB being 112 and the
regular threading being 88 or 92, at least for these records.  Of course
another way of determine it from a pressing would be counting the turns
for the movement of the stylus one inch, which would be an interesting
exercise for those who have these pressings. 

I wonder if Victor actually had different interchangeable feed-screws
for their lathes as was the technique used in later years on lacquer
lathes.  Changing the rotational speed of the feed-screw could also
change the threads per inch, such as changing an Edison cylinder machine
from 2-minute to 4-minute threading. Subtle changes in feed-screw
rotation could change the threading from 88 to 92 to 112 with the same
feed-screw.

The best idea of the usefulness of thread-per-inch count I've ever come
across is with the Edison Rayedisonic experimental broadcast discs in
the late 20s.  They used 30 RPM (which was a much more intelligent speed
than 33 1/3) since it gave a rotation of EXACTLY 2 seconds, which was
easy to adjust.  The discs were grooved at 300 grooves per inch.  Each
inch was exactly ten minutes of time.  Each 1/10 of an inch was one
minute.  They designed a pick-up arm with a calibrated dial which could
provide exacting cueing points, but only two playback machines were ever
made.     

Remember also that the Edison cylinder phonographs had two cut marks on
the reproducer support bar which would indicate exactly one minute of
time if the rotational speed was correct.  Since lateral discs were not
cut at specific threading, speed had to be calculated by counting the
rotations in a time length.  20 revs in 15 seconds for 80, and 78 in a
minute for 78.  This without the strobe disc, of course.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] Long length Billy Murray acoustical Victors
From: Ryan Barna <ryansrecords1 at hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, November 14, 2011 10:53 am
To: <78-l at 78online.com>


I went ahead and transcribed the full details (including the numbers and
dimensions) as given in the ledgers.
 
I'd like to quote something from Moran and Fagan's EDVR (Mx. Series
1-4999): "Fortunately for us at that time, about 1969, one of the people
most directly involved in keeping the files and logs, Miss Elsie
Garrison, who had joined the company in the 1920s, had recently retired,
so I wrote to her, stated my purpose and interest, and cited the
official letter quoted above as proof of our bona fides. I then received
a cordial letter from her explaining some of the notations that appeared
in the files and also implying that the information we sought might not
be as readily available as we believed because of the wear and tear
suffered by the files over the years. Unfortunately for us, she then
went on to make clear that she did not wish to become involved in what
her experience told her would be a most time-consuming project." (p.
xii)
 
I wish I could include all the details about the horn dimensions and
connectors used for my Murray discography, but they're all written in
codes. I have no idea how I would be able to interpret the data when I
don't know what the data means myself. I'd love to know what kind of
equipment was used for Murray's records in comparison with others. For
instance, Caruso, or large ensemble records.
 
(Is there anyone still alive who would know what "H30," "HC" or "HI"
really stood for? What in the world does "Hold Conditional" mean? Why
would they mark "Hold 30 Days" when they were obviously held a lot
longer?) Does Sony have any other archive or resource that could help
crack the code on many of these mysterious notations?
 
Before I forget, there is a very, very late use of the "BB" prefix I
found on June 28, 1915 for "It's Tulip Time in Holland," but all the
takes were destroyed.
 
Letter: BB 112
Serial No.: 8698 "M"
Mat. [matrix] No.: [take 1 - the number "1" was never used for the first
take, the first take was always left blank prior to 1911]
Name of Selections: Night trip to Buffalo Descriptive Spec Label RC 23
When Made: 3-11-10
Composer: [none]
Box: D
Horn: 60/60 11/11
Con. [connection?]: 11 1/2 + 14

Letter: BB 112
Serial No.: 8698 "Des."
Mat. [matrix] No.: 2
Name of Selections: Night trip to Buffalo Descriptive Spec Label 72 115
When Made: 3-11-10
Composer: [none]
Box: D
Horn: 60/60 11/11
Con. [connection?]: 11 1/2 + 14
 
Letter: BB 112
Serial No.: 8686 "M"
Mat. [matrix] No.: 4
Name of Selections: Casey Jones 72 118 S
Composer: Newton
Box: D
Horn: 60/60 11/11
Con. [connection?]: 11 1/2 + 14
 
Letter: BB 112
Serial No.: 9142 "M"
Mat. [matrix] No.: [take 1]
Name of Selections: Farmyard Medley RC/1
When Made: 6-28-10
Composer: [none]
Box: A
Horn: 11/11
Con. [connection?]: 14
 
Letter: BB 112
Serial No.: 9142 "Des"
Mat. [matrix] No.: 2
Name of Selections: Farmyard Medley 5
When Made: 6-28-10
Composer: [none]
Box: D
Horn: 11/11
Con. [connection?]: 14
 
The numbers surrounding the other "B" prefixes are a lot lower, although
all three takes of "Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon" and take 5 of
"Casey Jones" have 104 after the Bs. Everything else either has 92 or
88.