Wallerstein settled the length of the LP before his death - the length of Beethoven's Eroica. Vinyl, as we know it, came later with the further development of plastics and more importantly, the magnetic tape. Of course, we're talking 33 1/3 shellacs at the time. Research for the Vita Film Company by Bell Labs found the LP was a compromise between the size of a record needed to match an eleven minute film reel. Undoubtedly, that was what annoyed Sarnoff most - he was upstaged by their own format.Īccording to Travis Elborough The Vinyl Countdown, the choice of 33 1/3 was far from arbitrary. I stand corrected, the President of Columbia was Edward Wallerstein and it was he, who axed the 33 1/3 project at RCA in the thirties due to the Depression.(William Paley owned CBS and Wallerstein headed up the record division). They produced with the help of Philco their line of 45 spinners which, dropped each 45 at "lightning" speed. Problem is, you still required multiple discs for one symphony. Weinstock offered the 33 1/3 to RCA for a small fee but, Sarnoff refused to budge and persued the 45 RPM. Sarnoff, on the other hand was rightly peed off as RCA had abandoned the 33 1/3 about 15 years previous to Columbia's demonstrations of the new format. If I remember correctly, they used a Beethoven symphony as the ideal length of a piece of music - approximately 40 minutes and worked out the RPM from there. The whole affair was driven by the Classical music market and the effort to record a complete symphony on one record vs. Weinstock at Columbia records and the very stubborn Mr. Sarnoff deserved all the bad stuff he may have received.Įhtoo wrote:Format wars between Mr. Later the courts found in his favor making his widow a wealthy woman. All this contributed to Armstrong's depression and he took his own life. NTSC TV sound is FM as much as FM broadcast is. If that was not enough he managed to get "experts" to testify that NTSC TV sound was not really FM to deny Armstrong his due. Sarnoff influnced the FCC to attempt to kill FM brodcast. Armstrong invented the regenerative radio radio receiver, the super-regenerative radio receiver, the superheterodyne radio receiver, and finally FM. He is the dirt bag who screwed over Edwin Armstrong who is the hero of us old RF engineers. I am sad for RCA's engineers on both the old Lp format and the 45 format but I can't shed a tear for Sarnoff. Columbia dredged it up, refined it a bit and ate Sarnoff's lunch with it. It did indeed change discs very fast and may have been marginally suitable for classical music if it were not for the longer playing Lp format. He had his engineers develop the 45 format. A few years later Sarnoff wanted a new format to replace 78s and he was soured on 33 1/3 RPM. With the depression in full swing and RCA not managing the product well it failed. RCA developed a 33 1/3 RPM vinyl long playing record in the very early '30. What you said about the format war between RCA and Columbia is true. Sound fidelity was on a par with the LP, but classical music listeners decided that any pause was too long. The small 7-inch light-weight microgroove record with the big hole enabled an efficient automatic changer that could play a stack of records with very short pauses (1 or 2 seconds). I believe RCA’s 45-rpm record/changer system was actually developed in house prior to Columbia’s Microgroove LP, but was mothballed during WW-II. Key to the LP’s success was use of a microgroove (1-mil) stylus, low VTF pickups, and low-noise vinyl plastic disc material. Hence it was natural for Columbia Records to stick with 33.3-rpm as they developed their LP (Long Playing) records. But this effort did introduce 33.3 as a consumer product. Thus turntables capable of 33.3-rpm became common in the professional community.Ī short-lived effort by RCA resulted in 33.3-rpm 12-inch “transcription records” which was not a commercial success. Using a 2.5-mil groove, each side of these transcription discs could store a 15-minute program. Radio broadcasters adopted the 33.3-rpm 16-inch format for prerecorded program distribution. Playing time for one side of a disc equal to running time of a reel of 35mm film,įrom these design considerations evolved the 16-inch 33.3-rpm Vitaphone discs. Disc diameter compatible with shipping inside 35mm film reel cases.Ĥ. Turntable speed easily geared down from 50 and 60-Hz synchronous motors.ģ. Similar stylus as then used for 78-rpm records.Ģ. A phonograph turntable was synchronized with the film projector. AFAIK 33-1/3 rpm was first used for the Vitaphone movie sound system in the late 1920’s.
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