Tim
Feb 24, 2001, 06:36 PM
The earlist commercially available recording, from about the 1880's until World War I, were wax cylinders about 1/4" in diameter and 6-8" in length.
There were disks in the early part of the 20th Century,but the disk did not really take over until the time of W.W.I., simply because your early record players were hand operated(a crank) and you could not get a consistent speed, which was not as much of a problem on the cylinders.
During the 1910's and early 1920's, with the advent of the electric record players (and thusly the ability to have a constant speed), your first main format came out, the 78 R.P.M. record, which from the teens to the fifties was the standard for recorded music.
In fact, the term "album" comes from the 78 RPM record,when collections of songs by an artist, or a long classical/operatic work which requiered 5 or 6 78's,would be sold in a book,with the required number of sleeves for the disks bound in.
In 1949 began the war of the speeds when Columbia(CBS,today Sony), brought out the 33 1/3 RPM Long Playing record, and to counter it,RCA (now BMG) brought out the 45 RPM single, which did kill off the 78(though both were issued until at least 1957).
Also during this time, primarily IMO due to the fact that many record players did not play both speeds (i.e. 33 1/3 and 45 RPM), you had the Extended Play 45,which would usually have 4-6 songs from the artist' current LP issue. 2-3 EP's would comprise an LP. Also in this time was the short lived 16 RPM LP,used mainly for transcriptions of classical cooncert and radio shows. Also reel-to-reel tapes came out then,and they lasted till roughly 1972.
Tape grew in the 1960's with the 4-Track cartridge(c. 1965-c. 1971),the 8-Track cartridge (c. 1965-1988),and in 1966 the cassette, as well as the very short lived Playtape(67-69), and your early flexidiscs(Pocket Discs,also roughly 65-69).
The situation stayed like this until the 1982 introduction of the Compact Disc, and by the late 80s you almost could not find LPs or 45s.
There were attempts at DAT(Digital Audio tape), which was marketed in the USA as DCC(Digital Compact Cassette), but the format never caught on. There were also 3" CDs, which were to replace 45s, but again they didn't really catch on.
I hope you find this of interest.
------------------
Tim
------------
http://members.tripod.co.uk/seltaeb/fmty.jpg
There were disks in the early part of the 20th Century,but the disk did not really take over until the time of W.W.I., simply because your early record players were hand operated(a crank) and you could not get a consistent speed, which was not as much of a problem on the cylinders.
During the 1910's and early 1920's, with the advent of the electric record players (and thusly the ability to have a constant speed), your first main format came out, the 78 R.P.M. record, which from the teens to the fifties was the standard for recorded music.
In fact, the term "album" comes from the 78 RPM record,when collections of songs by an artist, or a long classical/operatic work which requiered 5 or 6 78's,would be sold in a book,with the required number of sleeves for the disks bound in.
In 1949 began the war of the speeds when Columbia(CBS,today Sony), brought out the 33 1/3 RPM Long Playing record, and to counter it,RCA (now BMG) brought out the 45 RPM single, which did kill off the 78(though both were issued until at least 1957).
Also during this time, primarily IMO due to the fact that many record players did not play both speeds (i.e. 33 1/3 and 45 RPM), you had the Extended Play 45,which would usually have 4-6 songs from the artist' current LP issue. 2-3 EP's would comprise an LP. Also in this time was the short lived 16 RPM LP,used mainly for transcriptions of classical cooncert and radio shows. Also reel-to-reel tapes came out then,and they lasted till roughly 1972.
Tape grew in the 1960's with the 4-Track cartridge(c. 1965-c. 1971),the 8-Track cartridge (c. 1965-1988),and in 1966 the cassette, as well as the very short lived Playtape(67-69), and your early flexidiscs(Pocket Discs,also roughly 65-69).
The situation stayed like this until the 1982 introduction of the Compact Disc, and by the late 80s you almost could not find LPs or 45s.
There were attempts at DAT(Digital Audio tape), which was marketed in the USA as DCC(Digital Compact Cassette), but the format never caught on. There were also 3" CDs, which were to replace 45s, but again they didn't really catch on.
I hope you find this of interest.
------------------
Tim
------------
http://members.tripod.co.uk/seltaeb/fmty.jpg