If this is your first page of entry please head for the start and read the articles in order! Cylinders had peaked in popularity around 1905. After this period, Berliner discs and disc players, most notably the Victrolas, began to take dominance of the market. Columbia Records, an Edison competitor, had stopped marketing cylinders in 1912. The Edison Company was fully devoted to cylinder phonographs, but became concerned with the rising popularity of the flat discs. Edison and his associates began developing their own disc player and discs in secret. Dr. Jonas Aylsworth was Edison's chief chemist. Dr. Aylsworth became a consultant for the Edison company in 1903. Dr. Aylsworth took charge of developing a plastic material for the discs. The aim was to produce a superior-sounding disc that would outperform the rivals' shellac records, that were prone to wear and warping. This new technique would be a complete divergence from the competitor's discs of the vertical-cut procedure that would be used for the grooves. In this approach, the stylus would move up and down in the groove, rather than from side to side or crossways. Ten-inch records would run for 5 minutes per side at approximately 80 rpm. Aylsworth moulded phenol and formaldehyde mixed with wood flour and a solvent into a heat-resistant disc. |
