[78-L] records for the blind

[Robert M. Bratcher Jr.]

I think 24 rpm was somewhere in Europe & I don't klnow what other speeds were used there.  For the USA it was 33 rpm 12 inch then 16 rpm 10 inch, 8 rpm 10 inch (all those were rigid vinyl discs) then finally 8 rpm 9 inch flexi pressed by Evatone Soundsheets with braiile on one side & print on the other. All the record players here in the USA had fairly high pressure pickups. Why they were not lightweight like a hifi pickup is I don't know. Perhaps it was to make sure that records could still be played after they got scratched up by users but also there was record wear caused by the heavy tracking pickups too. It is possible for a talking book reader (such as myself) to still get the records through a regional library however many have been withdrawn, reissued on 4 track 15/16ths ips cassette & or the digital format they use which can't be played on a computer but only on the special player they provide or a small number of commercial digital players
 such as the Victor Stream. The records were stopped around 2001 as I remember & cassettes are going to be stopped in late 2012. Thankfully the National Library ServiceFor The Blind & Disabled is reissuing titles in the digital format as fast as they can. I don't know how they did it (perhaps they made a new set of vinyls from the stampers) but an Alexander Scourby talking book from 1939 was reissued about 2 months ago which was nice & sounds great. I'm sure that they are reissuing books from analog tapes or records & vinyl from stampers if the tapes are not available for transferring. When they stopped issuing braille & large print books I have no idea 


>________________________________
>From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com> 
>Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 6:43 PM
>Subject: Re: [78-L] records for the blind
>
>Lots of Talking Book long playing records, with standard labels on one side and 
>Braille labels on the reverse. Some play at 24RPM, some at 33..in addition to 
>the 16 2/3 and 8RPM flexis (do those have Braille? can you press a Flexi with 
>Braille?).
>
>dl
>
>On 1/23/2012 7:35 PM, neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com wrote:
>> A little while ago I was at a conference and heard some strange clicking
>> sounds from the audience. I looked around and saw a blind woman taking
>> notes on some little pad like device in braille. The sound was made when
>> she punched the thing with a little tool of some kind.
>>
>> Got me to thinking (look out). Did records for the blind have braille
>> lettering? Were there any 78s like this?
>>
>> joe salerno
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