The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

buckettovsissors · Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 56

does anyone know if this device cuts,and if so does it use the "left to right" method or the depth method of cutting?
couldnt find much on google and the ads I found dont have tec. info.
thanks
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http://buckettovsissors.widerstand.org

grooveguy · Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 45

I've got one of these things, but have never taken it apart or tried to use it. It uses the thin red plastic 'blanks' with big holes (like a '45) that are offered elsewhere here. I did speak to someone who claimed that "everything Edison" was hill-and-dale (vertical modulation), but I wouldn't swear to it with this machine.

cuttercollector · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 307 Location: San Jose, CA

How old is that machine. It looks almost 1960s from the ad design and physical shape. I didn't know Edison (the company) was still around that late making dictation equipment. I am wondering whether this machine, the dictabelt units or even the soundscriber or others, regardless of whether they were hill and dale (Edison) or lateral, (pretty much every one else), technically "cut" anything, as in producing the familiar chip that has to be gotten rid of in some way. I think there was another technique known as embossing, that "dented" or deformed the material into a playable groove instead of "cutting" it. Anybody know who did what? Has anybody tried this with an "embossing" stylus into other material like solo plates with a normal lathe?

grooveguy · Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 45

I know for sure that the Soundscriber and Dictabelt recorders used lateral modulation. The later units from both companies used off-the-shelf Astatic crystal or ceramic pickups, albeit very small ones probably developed originally for OEM record changers. All dictating systems embossed, or 'dented,' the thin plastic discs, hence no 'chip' was developed to have to dispose of. The groove was very shallow in all of these machines, which necessitated a link to the feedscrew for the playback head as well as the embossing head.

There was another very interesting embossing system, the Wagner-Nichols machine. It was described by the inventors in Audio magazine in the late 1940s. The disc was about the size of a CD and held 15 minutes or more on each side. Record/playback quality was supposed to be quite respectable, compared to dictating machines, and was evidently good enough to get Mssrs. Wagner and Nichols in a lot of trouble with the N.Y. Metropolitan Opera. Evidently they recorded Met broadcasts without permission and tried to distribute them.