Recording Industry Advertising

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Historical Timeline

Tinfoil, Cylinders (Acoustic) 1877	Discs (Acoustic) 1887	Electrical 1926	Long Play 1948	Stereophonic, Hi-Fi 1958	Quadraphonic 1972	Compact Disc (Digital) 1983
Tinfoil: 60 rpm Wax Cylinder: 100 rpm	Disc	Shellac 78 rpm 7", 10", 12"	Vinyl 33.3, 45 rpm 7", 10", 12"	same	same	Laser Disc 200-500 rpm 5"
Ear-tubes	Horn	Amplifier	LP player, pickup and amplifier	Two loudspeakers, amplifier and stereo cartridge	Amplifier, decoder, four loudspeakers	CD player with D/A converter
4 minutes	4 minutes	4 minutes	20 minutes	30 minutes	30 minutes	80 minutes
	1-3 kHz	200 Hz - 6 kHz	20 Hz - 14 kHz	20 Hz - 20 kHz	same	same
s/n: 28 dB		30 dB	57 dB			90 - 110 dB
Edison Concert Band, cylinder n.d.	Royal Albert Hall Orch, 1916	Philadelphia, Stokowski, 1930	London Philharmonic, Boult, 1952	New York Philharmonic, Bernstein		New Philharmonia, 1990

Note: Music examples are from the finale to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture; historical recordings courtesy of The British Library

The Phonograph (1900-1930)

First Phonograph, n.d.

Victrola, 1902

Edison, 1910 and Tone tests

Columbia, 1928

The Acoustic Era

all ads taken from Busy Man's & Macleans magazine by Lisa Czembor

Neophone Disc Phonograph, Sept. 1906	B.M. Johnston's Talking Machine, Oct. 1906
Columbia Graphophone, June 1909	Pollock Phonola, Feb. 1911
Victor & Berliner Gram-o-phone "When the Family Gather 'round the Hearth", Feb. 1911	Victor & Berliner Gram-o-phone "An Educational Influence in the Home", March 1911
The Phonola "Is Your Talking Machine in Style", April 1911	Columbia Grafonola, "The ONE Supreme Gift for a Woman", Dec. 1912
Columbia Records "All the Music of all the World", Feb. 1914	Thomas A. Edison Inc. Phonograph "More than 70 Quartettes, too", Dec. 1914
Aeolian-Vocalion "The Music of Childhood", Jan. 1918	The New Edison "Testing the New Edison's RE-CREATION of Lazzari's Glorious Voice, Oct. 1918

"The most sensitive ear could not detect the slightest difference between the tone of the singer and the tone of the mechanical device" said a critic after hearing a 1916 demonstration where a tenor performed with an Edison Diamond Disk acoustic phonograph

"Everybody, including myself, was astonished to find that it was impossible to distinguish between my own voice, and Mr. Edison's re-creation of it" Metropolitan Opera soprano Anna Case (both quotes from Read & Welch, From Tin Foil to Stereo, 1976)