1900s

Harmony Disc Record (1907 – 1916)

Harmony Disc Records was a Chicago-based record label launched by the Great Northern Manufacturing Co. in 1907. It produced 10-inch shellac records that were identical to other disc records of the time, except for a large centre hole of ¾-inch diameter. The larger hole was so that only Harmony Disc Records could be played on the Harmony Talking Machine.

Harmony was one of a number of Chicago-based labels that operated a premium scheme whereby the phonograph itself was inexpensive but the purchaser was locked-in to purchasing discs made for the player since the player had a correspondingly larger center spindle to prevent discs with standard holes fitting onto the turntable.

Harmony Disc Records were sometimes single-sided in the early days, and all were 10-inch in diameter.

Around 1912, Great Northern Manufacturing Co. left the record business, and Columbia took over the Harmony Disc Record label, which was renamed Harmony Record with the company name as Harmony Talking Machine Co. Columbia resurrected the Harmony name in 1925, but this time with a standard centre hole.

As well as the Harmony Disc Record, the other Chicago-based labels included Standard Disc Record (½-inch centre hole), United Records (1½-inch centre hole), Aretino Records (3-inch centre hole), and Busy Bee Records (rectangular cut-out in addition to standard ¼-inch centre hole).

In 1916, Harmony, Standard, United and Aretino were brought together under the Consolidated Talking Machine Company. It’s unclear when the Harmony Record label was discontinued and it may be that like the Standard Disc Record label, some recordings would have been available for a while with the larger centre hole.

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Aretino Record (1907 – 1914)

Aretino Records were 10-inch (or sometimes 12-inch) 78 rpm shellac records with an unusually large centre hole of three-inch diameter. This was the largest spindle-hole of any record and meant the centre label was reduced to a narrow ring.

The label was based in Chicago in the US, and began producing disc records and the phonograph machines to play them around 1907. The large spindle on the phonograph meant that only Aretino Records could be played on them (though adapters were available to play Aretino Records on other phonograph machines). The players were sold very cheaply since consumers were locked into purchasing Aretino Records to play on them. This was a tactic employed by a number of Chicago-based record labels, including the Standard Disc Record (½-inch centre hole), Harmony Disc Record (¾-inch centre hole) United Records (1½-inch centre hole), and Busy Bee Records (rectangular cut-out in addition to standard ¼-inch centre hole).

Aretino records were produced as single-sided and double-sided 10-inch discs, and as double-sided 12-inch discs.

Aretino was merged with Busy Bee records in 1910, and Aretino records ceased production around 1914.

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Organette cardboard disc (late 1870s – 1920s)

The organette was a family of mechanical reed instruments, first introduced in the late 1870s. They were hand-cranked, and designed for tabletop use in the home.

There were a variety of manufacturers, and the instruments used a variety of means of storing the musical sequences, including perforated paper rolls, cardboard sheets or discs, or perforated metal discs. Roller organs using organ cobs were another form of organette.

Organettes using cardboard discs were produced under names such as Helikon, Ariston and Reform-Orgel. Ariston machines came in three different sizes, offering 16, 24 or 36 notes. Cardboard discs came in a variety of diameters, from 17 cm up to 42.5 cm and were centre driven, with the larger discs offering more notes.

The perforations allowed a lever to lift off the relevant valve and the length of the perforation dictated how long a note sounded for.

The Herophon was a form of Organette that use a cardboard square, albeit with a circular pattern, and the card remained stationery while the mechanism moved around underneath. The Herophon, despite its unusual operation, was felt to be too similar in some respects to the Ariston organette produced by Paul Ehrlich & Co. and there was a patent infringement case lasting from 1885 to 1888. Ehrlich won the case, and the Herophon went on to be produced by Ehrlich into the 1890s.

Organettes were popular and had a large selection of music produced for them, but as the phonograph became more affordable they were replaced.

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Autochrome Lumière (1907 – 1955)

Paris: Aux Champs Elyseés, 1914. On glass Verascope Stereoview

Autochrome was one of the very first practical method of colour photography (the similar Jougla Omnicolore was introduced a few months previously) and was first marketed by the Lumière brothers in 1907, becoming widely used before the advent of subtractive colour film in the 1930s.

Autochrome used an additive method, with a glass plate coated in microscopic grains of potato starch that were dyed red-orange, green, or blue-violet, underneath a panchromatic photographic emulsion. The plates needed longer exposures than contemporary black and white photography (about thirty times more). Although there was no need for any special camera, there was a need for a yellow filter to correct the over-sensitivity to blue light, and a tripod was needed for the long exposures.

The resulting positive image was quite dark and needed bright light for viewing. Autochrome plates could be viewed with a special stand called a diascope, that offered a brighter image, or they could be projected with a magic lantern but they needed a very powerful light. Unfortunately, Autochrome images on glass plates were difficult for artistic photographers to exhibit and so most autochromes were taken by amateur photographers.

The Autochrome process produces images that are considered very attractive and dreamlike. Stereoscopic Autochromes were available, and combined both colour and depth.

Despite being much more expensive that monochrome plates, the Lumière factory was making 6,000 autochrome plates a day by 1913, in a range of different sizes.

From 1932, film versions of Autochrome became available, but faced competition from new subtractive colour films such as Kodachrome and Agfacolour Neu. Autochrome film was finally discontinued in 1955.

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Jougla Omnicolore (1907 – 1912)

Omnicolore-plate-box
Omnicolore-plate-1
Omnicolore-plate-3
Omnicolore-plate-2

Omnicolore was a very early additive colour photography process that produced positive images on glass plates.

It was based on a process patented by Louis Ducos du Hauron in 1906 and was introduced to the market in 1907 by the Jougla company in France, a few months before the Autochrome process was introduced by the Lumière brothers.

Omnicolore used the screen process like Autochrome, but used a grid of lines (blue lines with broken lines of red and green) to form the colour screen rather than random starch grains. This made them more sensitive than Autochrome and allowed for shorter exposure times, but the colour quality was reduced over Autochrome.

Jougla produced Omnicolore plates in a range of sizes, and also in stereoscopic formats, but due to competition in the small market for colour photography, Jougla merged with Lumière in 1911 and the Autochrome process won out with Omnicolore disappearing in 1912.

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Book music (1892 – )

Book music is a means of storing music for mechanical organs. Patented by organ maker Anselmo Gavioli in 1892, it consists of thick cardboard sheets with holes that can either be read by keys in the organ, or that allow air to pass through (keyless music). The sheets are joined in a zig-zag fashion, and as they pass through the organ mechanism, they fold into a neat pile that unlike paper rolls, is ready to play again almost immediately.

Barrel organs mostly use a pinned wooden cylinder (rather like a larger organ cob) but this limits the amount of music, and they are heavy and expensive to produce. Book music does not have such restrictions on the length of the music, though it is heavier and more expensive to produce than paper rolls.

While book music is usually used in larger organs such as fairground and street organs, it has also been used in smaller instruments such as organettes.

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Standard Disc Record (1904 – 1920)

Sevilla (Boston No. 10) (5608) Standard Disc Record (10-inch, single-sided)
Sevilla (Boston No. 10) (5608) Standard Disc Record (10-inch, single-sided)
Sevilla (Boston No. 10) (5608) Standard Disc Record (10-inch, single-sided)
Sevilla (Boston No. 10) (5608) Standard Disc Record (10-inch, single-sided)

Standard Disc Records were marketed by the Standard Talking Machine Company, one of a number of Chicago-based sellers of phonograph machines and 78 rpm disc records. These companies used a premium scheme to tie buyers to a particular record label, and this was in the form of larger centre holes in their discs and larger spindles on their machines. They sold their phonograph machines cheaply, sometimes giving them away for free with the purchase of a certain number of disc records, but then buyers were tied into buying discs from the same company.

The Standard Talking Machine Company began selling re-branded Columbia phonograph machines around 1904 and advertised nationally. To ensure that only Standard Disc Records were played on their machines, the centre hole was drilled out to around ½-inch and the machines was equipped with an enlarged spindle. Standard sold 7-inch and 10-inch 78 rpm discs, both single and double-sided, and these were often unsold Columbia stock with new labels pasted on, though some were pressed by the company from Columbia masters.

As well as the Standard Disc Record, the other Chicago-based labels included Harmony Disc Record (¾-inch centre hole) United Records (1½-inch centre hole), Aretino Records (3-inch centre hole), and Busy Bee Records (rectangular cut-out in addition to standard ¼-inch centre hole).

In 1916, Standard, Harmony, United and Aretino were brought together under the Consolidated Talking Machine Company. The Standard Disc Record label continued until 1918, and then records were sold under the Consolidated Record label but still available for a while with the ½-inch centre hole. Consolidated continued to purchase Columbia pressings until at least early 1920.

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Kinora (1900 – 1914)

The Kinora was a means of viewing moving images by using a flip-book technique on a series of black and white still photographs on card. They were used in a viewer machine that was designed for home use by one person at a time, and a lens enlarged the image for viewing.

Invented by the Lumière brothers in France in 1895, it wasn’t until the idea was passed to Gaumont in France in 1900 that it was commercially developed. Gaumont released around 100 reels in 1900, and then in 1902 it was launched in Britain by The British Mutoscope & Biograph Co. Ltd.

The system became popular with the middle classes, and around 600 Kinora reels were available, along with 12 different models of viewer. In 1907, a new company, Kinora Co. Ltd. was created by The British Mutoscope & Biograph Co. Ltd. to market the system, and in 1908, an amateur Kinora camera was introduced, The camera allowed people to create their own set of photographs to be processed by Kinora to create a reel. It was also possible to visit a Kinora studio to create an ‘animated family portrait’.

In 1914 the Kinora factory in Letchworth was destroyed in a fire, and since cinema was at that time becoming increasingly popular, the factory was not re-opened.

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Catalogue card (1780s – 2015)

Catalogue (or catalog) cards were used in library catalogues as a index to the contents of the library, and provided information about the books or other materials contained in the library, such as author, title, year, subject and call number (location). Cards could easily be added to the catalogue as new items were added to the library.

The first card catalogues appeared around the 1780s, but it wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that the 3 inch by 5 inch (7.5 cm by 12.5 cm, also known as ‘postal size’ at the time) card became the standard after being advocated as one of two possible sizes of card in 1877 by the American Library Association. The hole in the lower portion of a catalogue card allowed a rod to be passed through the stack of cards in the drawer to help prevent cards falling out if the drawer was removed, and discouraged library users from removing cards.

In 1901, the Library of Congress in the US began the sale and distribution of pre-printed catalogue cards to libraries.

During the 1960s the Library of Congress went on to develop the MARC (machine-readable cataloging) format that soon became an international standard for the sharing of bibliographic data.

OCLC, which ran a shared online cataloguing service, began printing catalogue cards in 1971 and reached a peak of 131 million cards printed in 1985. However, card catalogues quickly fell out of use as computer catalogues became widely available in the 1990s, and OCLC printed the last catalogue cards in 2015.

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Organette spool (late 1870s – 1920s)

Roll 102. 24 feet. Mechanical Orguinette Co. New York.
Roll 102. 24 feet. Mechanical Orguinette Co. New York.
Roll 102. 24 feet. Mechanical Orguinette Co. New York.

The organette was a family of mechanical reed instruments, first introduced in the late 1870s. They were hand-cranked, and designed for tabletop use in the home.

There were a variety of manufacturers, and the instruments used a variety of means of storing the musical sequences, including perforated paper rolls, cardboard discs or sheets, or perforated metal discs. Roller organs using organ cobs were another form of organette.

Organettes using paper rolls on spools were made by a variety of manufacturers and rolls came in various widths and with different numbers of holes, ranging from 11 for the Trumpetto to 116 for the Aeolian. The most common format was a width of 7.8-inches with 14 holes. Rolls supplied on spools could be friction-fed, or wound onto a take-up spool in the organette as they played. The paper on friction-fed rolls was usually thicker.

The perforations allowed a lever to lift off the relevant valve and the length of the perforation dictates how long a note is sounded for.

Organettes were popular and had a large selection of music produced for them, but as the phonograph became more affordable they were replaced.

Sources / Resources