The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Tron · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 21

Does anyone here know which machines are compatable with edison diamond discs? I was told these get embossed as opposed to cut.. Someone here undoubtly has experience with this format help us out with the info please!

thanks Laughing

tsullivan · Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 27

An Edison Diamond disc is no different than any other record of the era, except they are vertically cut. You can play them on a modern turntable with a stereo cartridge by wiring the cartridge for mono, with one channel 180 degrees out of phase with the other. Then the cartridge responds only to vertical modulation. Regular lateral records will just produce a hiss. Before the invention of the stereo cartridge, there was no other way to play an Edison disc on a modern turntable. Those of us that play old records on modern equipment have a switch wired into one channel so we can change from vertical response to lateral just by throwing a switch. There is also a reproducer available that mounts a Stanton 500 series cartridge on a Edison cylinder player, for playing cylinders with a modern cartridge. Cylinders are vertically cut also. As far as I know, both Edison discs and cylinders are cut like any other record, just vertical instead of lateral. Of course, stereo discs are a combination of the two.

Whats really interesting is that Edison actually produced long playing records based on the diamond disc. They played about 20 minutes per side, at 78 rpm! (Actually 80 rpm). I have seen one of the discs, and the grooves are finer than on a modern LP. It required a special reproducer with a very fine stylus. Not too many were sold, and they and especially the special reproducer are very rare today.

Tom

Tom

Steve E. · Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:34 pm Post subject:

In the 78 era (or 80 rpm era for these discs) you were only supposed to use special Edison players. BUT you could also use a Brunswick Ultona handcranked machine, if you set the tonearm to the correct setting.

Playing an Edison disc on any 40s or 50's mono electric record player, with a mono stylus, might well destroy or snap your stylus! Do not do! Stereo styli are designed for up and down (hill and dale) motion so they can handle them.