This was a short-lived series of double-sided 7-inch 78rpm records aimed at children. Their catalogue numbers all begin with AS and their labels were orange.
There were 43 records in the series, all of which were issued between 1923 and 1925 except for AS 43 which was issued in 1930.
In a 1930 catalogue of records for schools, the AS series records are priced at 1/6 (one shilling and sixpence in old UK currency, or 8 pence in decimal currency).
Quadraphonic recording was a means of providing sound from four channels, and on vinyl records was most often used on 12-inch long-play (LP) records. It was not a commercial success partly due to a number of competing systems.
Quadraphonic sound on 7-inch singles was even less common. As well as 7-inch singles playing at 45 rpm, there were also some quadraphonic EPs and Little LPs, which played at 33⅓ rpm. Many of the EPs and Little LPs seem to have been produced for use in quadraphonic jukeboxes.
Nearly all quadraphonic releases on 7-inch records used either the SQ Quadraphonic or Quadraphonic Sound (QS) systems.
Quadraphonic singles were introduced in 1971, and releases seem to have peaked around 1974. In 1976, releases appear to have ceased, a few years ahead of quadraphonic LPs.
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.
In 1984, the band 3D released a single on the RAK label called ‘Nearer (Revenge Mix)’. Side A of the 7-inch single contained the song, but the non-playable B side displayed a hologram design with the band’s logo and the song’s title. This appears to be on foil embedded under clear vinyl, giving the record a silver appearance.
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t the first holographic 7-inch single as the 1980 single ‘The Best of Times’ by Styx was on laser-etched vinyl giving a holographic diffraction effect. Unlike the 3D release, on the Styx record the side with the surface etching could still be played.
There appear to be only two releases with a hologram embedded into the non-playable side of a vinyl record – this record by 3D, and a charity single called ‘Help a London Child’ issued by Capital Radio in 1985. The holograms on both of these singles were designed by SEE 3 Holograms Ltd.
The 1981 7-inch single of ‘Dumb Waiters’ by the Psychedelic Furs on CBS Records had a sleeve that could be played to hear excerpts from the band’s Talk Talk Talk album.
The sleeve was a form of cardboard record, with a hole in the centre, and a flexi-disc glued to one side.
The sleeve played at a different speed, 33⅓ rpm, as opposed to 45 rpm for the record.
The idea didn’t take off, but in 1982 CBS Records tried another marketing idea, selling one-sided singles.
In 1982, CBS Records started selling one-sided 7-inch singles in the US, to see whether selling them for less than a standard double-sided single would have an impact on flagging sales. There was a feeling that consumers would happily do without the B-side of a single if they could pay 99 cents or less for a single (when singles normally sold for $1.49 to $1.59), though the double-sided versions were also available for sale at the same time.
The singles came in plain packaging emblazoned with the legend ‘One Sided Single | Get The Hit! | Special Low Price’, and were sold under the Columbia and Epic record labels.
One-sided singles were not a new idea, and in the early years of production, 78 rpm records were all single-sided.
Second time around, the idea doesn’t seem to have been a success, and fewer than 40 titles were released by CBS under the One Sided Single series before it was dropped in 1983.
The Movin Pictures player was a combined phonograph and projector aimed at children, and was introduced by Vanity Fair Industries in 1977 for the US market. Each See & Hear pack for use with the player consisted of a 7-inch 33⅓ rpm record, along with a circular picture disc that turned as the record played to project different images. It was similar in concept to the more popular Show’N Tell.
There were three series of See & Hear Packs – Terrytoons in red packs, Nursery Rhymes in blue packs, and Captain Kangaroo in yellow packs.
The Movin Pictures player could project onto its own lid, or on to a wall up to six feet away. It could also play standard 7-inch records at 45 or 33⅓ rpm.
It doesn’t appear to have been very popular, and only around 24 Show & Tell Pack titles were produced in 1977 or 1978.
In 1889, after being granted US, German and English patents in 1887, Emile Berliner began making 5-inch ‘gramophone’ (a name coined by Berliner) discs in Germany. These first gramphone discs were initially made of celluloid before switching to a hard rubber compound. They were played on a hand-cranked turntable made by the toymakers Kämmer & Reinhardt.
The venture with Kämmer & Reinhardt didn’t last long, but in 1894 Berliner formed the United States Gramophone Company in Washington, D.C. to make single-sided 7-inch discs and the machines to play them on. The discs initially used a hard-rubber compound before switching to shellac in 1895 and played for around 2 minutes with speed varying from 60 rpm to 75 rpm.
Discs had several advantages over the brown wax cylinders available at the time, including durability and the ability to mass-produce copies.
Berliner also had interests in other countries, with a company in England (The Gramophone Company), Germany (Deutsche Grammophon), and Canada (E. Berliner Gramophone of Canada) among others.
Several illegal competitors began to sell discs and machines by the late 1890s, including the Zonophone made by the Universal Talking Machine Company. A lawsuit by the Universal Talking Machine Company forced Berliner to abandon his US operations and transfer the rights to Eldridge Johnson, who manufactured Gramophone machines for Berliner. Johnson formed the Consolidated Talking Machine Company (producing the ‘Improved Gram-O-Phone Record’) before a name change in 1901 to the Victor Talking Machine Company.
Victor introduced the 10-inch 78 rpm record in 1901, and appears to have dropped the 7-inch size by 1908. However, the 7-inch size never fully died out, and was briefly revived in 1915 by the Emerson Record Company in the US, and later by Victory Records in 1928 for the UK market. Even after this, the size was still used for 78 rpm records, often for children’s records, a late example being Happy Time Records in the 1960s (albeit on vinyl rather than shellac) before the 78 rpm speed died out.
Speak-O-Phone was a brand of aluminium phonograph disc for recording and was introduced by the Speak-O-Phone Corporation of New York founded in 1926. Aluminium was used as a recording medium from the time electrical recording was introduced in the mid-1920s until probably around the early 1940s when aluminium was required for the war effort. At some point, the Speak-O-Phone Corporation started producing a portable record cutter that could handle both aluminium and lacquer discs.
People would go to a Speak-O-Phone studio to make their recording, most likely in the form of a voice message which could then be mailed to friends or family if required, or they could use a Speak-O-Phone portable recorder.
Speak-O-Phone discs seem to have been available in various sizes, including 6, 7, 8, or 10-inch diameter, and were electrically recorded at 78 rpm. Playback required the use of needles supplied for use with Speak-O-Phone discs, or fibre needles – the standard steel needles on phonographs of the time would damage the groove.
Speak-O-Phone discs, like other aluminium discs of the time such as Voice Records, Mivoice, Egovox, Repeat-a-Voice, Remsen, or Kodisc, are not likely to break or warp but can corrode.
Emidisc was a brand of lacquer disc (sometime known as acetate or instantaneous disc) that was introduced to the UK market perhaps as early as 1946 (when the Emidisc name was trademarked) by EMI. They were made under license from the Pyral company in France that had invented the nitrocellulose lacquer-coated disc in 1934 and that also licensed the process to Audio Devices, Inc. for their Audiodisc brand in the US.
Emidiscs appear to mostly have been used by by recording studios either as master discs or to give to clients to hear at home what they had recorded in the studio. Some had an extra drive pin hole to prevent slippage on simpler cutting machines that lacked a vacuum to hold the disc in place. Like many other lacquer discs, the core of an Emidisc is made of aluminium, making the disc much heavier than a standard shellac or vinyl record.
Emidiscs may have typed or handwritten information on the label, and can be difficult to date. The lacquer coating wears much quicker than standard shellac or vinyl records, and a chipped stylus can damage the disc in one play.
The Emidisc brand appears to have been in use for lacquer discs until around the mid-1970s, judging by entries on Discogs, and the Emidisc label was used from 1970 by EMI in Europe for budget record releases.