Holly Robertson
December 2, 2002
LIS 392.5 / Pavelka
History of the Invention, Manufacture, and Use of Instantaneous Discs
Between the soaring popularity of recorded sound on the disc of the early twentieth century and the high-fidelity recording capabilities of magnetic tape achieved after World War II lies the brief but enthusiastic niche of the instantaneous disc. Developed in the 1930s and used well into the late 1940s and 1950s as an inexpensive and accessible method of recording, the instantaneous disc was different from commercially distributed records. The instantaneous disc – sometimes called lacquers, acetates (quite erroneously, according to Peter Copeland[1]), transcription discs, old time radio (OTR) recordings, Insta-discs, dubs, or reference recordings – was a “compromise of ease of engraving and playback life,” composed of softer materials than mass produced phonographs and thus more fragile and susceptible to the hazards of playback. Created using a special turntable either acoustically or magnetically, instantaneous discs created immediately available recordings that were unique, consumer-initiated sonic time capsules of a period in which media innovations were broadening and linking the world in a way quite similar to present day computer technology and the internet.
Instantaneous discs appeared at the crossroads of cylinder and disc technology in sound recordings. Cylinders, the earliest form of sound recording and playback, were known as phonographs (only in the United States are flat discs now acceptably called such). Invented in 1877, Thomas Edison’s cylinder recorded sound in a spiral groove around the curved outer space of a hollow cylinder covered in tin foil. Alexander Graham Bell introduced a competitive update on the Edison cylinder in 1885, employing a wax cardboard cylinder instead of tin foil which offered improved sound quality and a more durable recording material. Cylinders were available for commercial sale by 1890, but as they could not be mass produced (each cylinder had to be recorded individually, with banks of machines recording in sessions), inventors continued searching for a viable medium for mass-producible sound.[2]
Emile Berliner in 1887 introduced discs on which the recording spiraled in grooves on a flat surface. These discs were created using a lateral cut or the impressing of mono-sound waves into a groove cut by a stylus that vibrates from side to side as dictated by the sound waves of the recording. The stylus follows the same such path upon playback, following the groove and the side-to-side cuts which create the playback sound wave. The earliest discs were lampblack covered surfaces, but Berliner soon employed grease coated zinc discs which, after recording, could be dipped in acid and the etching or sound recording could be transferred to other metal discs, creating a stamping plate to press recordings for mass manufacture. This sort of process mimics the intaglio process used in printing where a plate with incised lines and textures created by cuts, scratching, or etching with acid into the surface that hold ink for transfer to paper. Vulcanite (vulcanized rubber) was employed in the early days of disc manufacture as well, but its tendency to flatten and lose the sound recorded grooves proved it unacceptable.[3] Shellac, made from the secretions of the lac insect combined with fillers, pigments, lubricants, binders, and modifiers, was introduced in 1897[4]. Hard wax discs were introduced in 1900, and in the meantime Edison was still developing cylinder technology, introducing his own hard wax cylinders in 1903.[5] Discs were winning the popularity contest, however, not only due to their higher sound fidelity but also their ease of use and of recording as well as the fact that disc manufacturers were more adept at promoting their product and popular music was predominantly recorded on disc. Laminated discs, or discs coated with the shellac compound but with a base of heavy paper or cardboard, were introduced by Columbia Records in 1906.[6] Cheaper and yet of higher sound quality than their predecessors, laminate discs were more economical to produce because the paper base meant utilizing less shellac, and better shellac was used since it was not needed in such high quantities. Suddenly, improvements in sound recording materials came to a near halt as interests turned to the new entertainment medium of radio and the improvement of the sound recording process from an acoustic to amplified electromagnetic process. By 1929, Edison had given up on cylinders as a medium for sound recording, and shellac coated discs would remain the format for mass produced records.[7]
Peter Copeland, Conservation Manager and sound engineer at the British Library Sound Archive, credits the invention of the instantaneous disc to Cecil Watts, who in 1934 discovered that discs with a surface coating of cellulose nitrate (or nitrocellulose) were soft enough to allow grooves to be cut yet sturdy enough to allow a few playbacks on common record players.[8] Although it is arguable that instantaneous disc recordings were available throughout the advancing material history of the sound recording disc, it seems that the specific manufacture of instantaneous discs and the devices on which to record these discs for wide-spread use begins in 1934 with the cellulose nitrate laminate disc. Materials in use prior to cellulose nitrate include laminated discs coated with soft wax, ethyl cellulose, and cellulose acetate, as well as discs solely composed of soft metals such as aluminum or zinc. Cellulose nitrate, while certainly not a champion of stability, is however much more durable and has better playback sound quality than its soft wax or ethyl cellulose counterparts, which may be part of the reason that instantaneous discs are widely understood to be composed of only that material. Also, very few aluminum or other soft metal discs are still in existence; Elizabeth McLeod, documentarian of early radio, notes that during the scrap drives of World War II, citizens were urged to turn in as much aluminum as they could for recycling. Thousands of unique recordings were lost when “patriotic performers could see no reason to hold onto ten years of old broadcasts when there was a war to be won.”[9]
Instantaneous discs were used for an incalculable variety of recordings. Radio stations were the most fervent users of the discs; by 1936, many stations had the equipment to produce their own instantaneous discs. NBC was among the first station to purchase such a machine and on January 1, 1936 announced its Reference Recording division to engineer recordings.[10] CBS acquired equipment in September 1938 and ABC soon thereafter. Bing Crosby, later a catalyst for the invention of sound recordings on magnetic tape, was based at ABC which used the technology of instantaneous discs to edit and mix sound recordings. Radio dramas, soap operas, and newscasts were pre-recorded on the discs for later playback (these were also known as “time-shifted” recordings) as were ads and on-air checks. One of the most famous recordings on instantaneous discs was created by reporter Herb Morrison and audio engineer Charlie Nelson for NBC in May of 1937. Invited to record interviews of passengers embarking the luxury hotel airship Hindenburg, Morrison and Nelson instead captured the Hindenburg disaster. According to early radio expert Michael Biel who examined the instantaneous discs recorded at the Lakehurst site:
You can see several deep digs in the lacquer before the groove disappears. Then almost immediately there is a faint groove for about two revolutions while Charlie Nelsen gently lowered the cutting head back to the disc [after the explosion]. Fortunately the cutting stylus never cut through the lacquer to the aluminum base. If that had happened the most dramatic part of the recording would not have been made because the stylus would have been ruined. The digs and bouncing off of the cutting head were caused by the shock wave of the explosion which reached the machine just after Morrison said, “It burst into flame . . .”[11]
Beyond radio, instantaneous discs were used to record events such as speeches, conference proceedings, and political rallies and debates. Ethnologists used instantaneous disc recording to chronicle oral histories and folk songs which were gaining momentum in popular music. The American Folklife Center and the Special Collections at the Library of Congress houses many collections primarily composed of instantaneous disc holdings created in the 1930s and 1940s, including: “Voices from the Dustbowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection,”[12] “The WPA California Folk Music Project,”[13] and “The Frank C. Brown Collection of Field Recordings of North Carolina Folk Music, late 1910s to early 1940s.”[14] Consumers used the discs to make personal recordings in the style of today’s do-it-yourself home studios, capturing everything from songs to audio greeting cards in the grooves of cellulose nitrate.
Recording studios for instantaneous discs appeared in 1932 while use of aluminum and other soft metal discs dominated the instantaneous market. Charging up to $14 to record a half hour show on eight sides of four 12” uncoated aluminum discs, these studios were not intended for non-commercial use as the average weekly wage at the time was less than $28 per week.[15] Speak-O-Phone Recording Studio was originally based in Manhattan but soon opened branches in major cities including Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles. Another large New York based company was Broadcast Producers, Incorporated. Los Angeles was served by 1932 by Bert Gottschalk's Electro-Vox Recording Studio in Hollywood --a company finally closed in early 2000, after nearly seven decades in business. [16] Presto Recording Corporation -- originally Presto Products Company established in 1915 as a manufacturer Sonora phonograph and other equipment such as a three pound head for embossing on aluminum blanks -- reorganized in 1933 and one year later announced in the Fall of 1934 the U.S. premiere of the instantaneous disc as it would be popularly known (similar companies announced simultaneous inventions in England and France). The “Presto Disc” was an aluminum plate coated with a cellulose nitrate lacquer. Although the dramatic difference in superior recording quality over the previously used aluminum blanks was immediately obvious, the U.S. Patent office nonetheless denied Presto patent rights as lacquer blanks were nothing new . Recording on pre-grooved blanks, embossing on aluminum blanks, and coating aluminum with various substances were all widespread industry practices, yet the combination of a recordable lacquered disc with pre-grooved blank and an aluminum base was Presto’s contribution. Since their innovation was unpatenable, other companies quickly initiated manufacture of cellulose nitrate blanks soon after the introduction of the Presto disc.[17] McLeod, researching the prices of blank instantaneous discs, was able to find figures from the mid 1940s: a company popular after World War II, Audiodisc, produced red label blanks that were $3.40 each for 16” discs, $1.85 each for 12” discs, and $1.10 each for 10” discs; Presto produced less expensive 16” discs “Green Seal type” for $3.25 each – which were actually of better quality “from a preservationist’s perspective.” [18]
Eventually, the recordable instantaneous disc was superseded by magnetic tape technology, first on audio reels and later with audiocassettes. Magnetic tape was cheaper to produce – both in terms of manufacturing and recording costs – and produced a higher sound fidelity than the roughly cut discs. Magnetic tape could be reused, and the recording and playback machines were cheaper to produce, and thus available to most consumers.
The Material Structure of Instantaneous Discs
“Almost without exception, the design of a new material or type of sound recordings has been based on . . . fidelity of reproduction of sound , playback durability . . . and economy of manufacture alone”[19]
As earlier mentioned, instantaneous discs are made from a variety of materials with the popular consumer version a cellulose nitrate laminated disc with a base material or either metal, glass, or cardboard. This examination of the material structure of instantaneous discs will focus on the cellulose nitrate, also known as nitrocellulose or celluloid, is one of the oldest known plastics. Introduced at the Great Exhibition in London in 1862, it did not become a common material until the mid 1870s.[20] The mere mention of cellulose nitrate immediately sounds fire alarms in most archivesas it is the infamous and often disastrous base material of early motion picture film that is prone to burning explosively. As cellulose nitrate decomposes via hydrolytic, thermal and photo-oxidative means, the molecules undergo chain scission and nitrogen peroxide is produced which is converted to nitrous or nitric acid in liquid water. In the presence of acid, the degradation process becomes an autocatalytic reaction, and explosive. Motion picture films with a cellulose nitrate base are plasticized using camphor whereas the cellulose nitrate coating on instantaneous discs utilizes castor oil as a plasticizer. The camphor in cellulose nitrate motion picture films is not a cause of its instability; although the camphor is “tenaciously retained” by the cellulose nitrate in its solvent plasticizer form, the degradation of the cellulose nitrate itself causes failure while sufficient amounts of camphor remain in the film.[21] On the other hand, while the cellulose nitrate of instantaneous discs is much more stable and less dangerous than its motion picture film counterpart due to its use of less nitrated materials extended with inert fillers. The castor oil plasticizer, however, is the main cause of instantaneous disc degradation.