Sixteen, Twelve, Ten and Seven Inches

Let's talk about size. Record sales today are on the upswing. All the pundits say it's a fad but one with mysterious staying power. It's the truth. The vinyl sales surge will not last forever. It will plateau, and then slowly fade and the dystopian age of digital audio will reign eternal.

So before it passes let us discuss the origin of each of vinyls incarnations. For the purposes of this list I'm excluding digital recordings in order to eliminate floppy discs, and music box disc recordings. I listed 16, 12, 10 and 7 inches as they were unarguably the most common sizes of commercially available analog audio records. But there were many more. the largest were mostly radio transcriptions. The smallest of records are novelties, usually marketed to children, but there are exceptions. We can start small, very small indeed.

1-Inch
There are no real 1 inch records. Yet there was one 1-inch record released. Courtesy of Slap A Ham records, in 1996, the hardcore band Spazz released a super-limited 78 rpm pressing of "Hemorrhoidal Dance of Death" on a 1 inch disc. By all reports, it contained no music. More here.

2-Inch
A sole 2-inch record was released by Japanese grind-core band Slight Slappers. Unlike the above some purport that this contains some audio. This 1998 pressing was also the work of Slap A Ham records. More here.

3-inch
Emile Berliner created many different size discs prior to 1900 some as small as 3 to 5 inches. He eventually settled on a 7-inch disc as his standard around 1890. More here. But these tiny discs aren't all ancient history. In 2006 the White stripes put out a set of 3-inch records with a limited edition record player made to handle the diminutive diameter. More here.

3.5-Inch
Imperial records pressed a series of children's 78s that were three-and-a-half inches in diameter. Most of these date to just after 1930. You can see one here.

4-Inch
In 2009 the band Mayer Hawthorne released "A Strange Arrangement" which came packaged with a 4-inch vinyl single. A novelty, but a clever one. More here.

5-Inch
Strictly a novelty size. In the 1980s a slew of vacuous synth pop bands released 5-inch singles including Squeeze, Culture Club, Gary Glitter, Cyndi Lauper, and Wang Chung to name a few.  Some modern plants will still press discs as small as 5 inches.

6-Inch
6-inch Little Golden Records made of bright yellow plastic were a common sight in children's playrooms in the United States during the 1950s. It's also worth noting that Young People's Records and Disney also made discs in this size. Numerous instantaneous home recording 6-inch blanks were made most notably  by Voice-O-Graph. More here.

6.5-Inch Disc
Federal Perma Disc, Silvertone,  Recordio, Duodisc and many others all made discs in this size and sold them in packs of 5 for instantaneous home recordings. They remain a common find in the dusty 78 rpm crates.

7-Inch
This is the size of both those early Berliner records from the 1890s and the ever-popular 45s first appearing in February of 1949. Modern punk bands continue to produce a slew of low fidelity 33rpm 7-inch discs for niche consumption. The size is the longest to still be in use with a longevity now of over 120 years.

8-Inch
Recordio, Duodisc and H.O.W.A.R.D. all made discs in this size for instantaneous home recordings. There were also glass acetates in this diameter dating to the mid 1940s. Some early experimental Victor discs were 8-inches in diameter but no commercial releases I am aware of.

9-Inch
Another novelty size. Prior to 1910 Zon-O-Phone released 9 inch shellac recordings that spun at abotu 60 rpm.  In 1959 Seeburg Corp. introduced the Seeburg Background Music System 9-inch record with 2-inch center hole. It held about 40 minutes of music per side, an early attempt at elevator music. Supposedly there were also a scant number of Japanese pressings from the 1980s in this size I know nothing about. More recently, the industrial band Nine Inch Nails released a limited series of 9-inch discs cut from their hit album The Downward Spiral in 1994.

10-Inch
This was the dominant size for the 78 rpm record from around 1910 through 1950. Prior to the 33rpm LP everything was 10 inches. This was commemorated by Bull Moose Jackson with his song "Big Ten Inch" in 1952.

11-Inch
Another novelty size. Sitting squarely between two very common sizes,  it served no commercial function.
In 1980, the British band Alien Sex Fiend were the first band to release an 11-inch record in October 1984.

12- Inch
Columbia debuted the 12-inch LP in 1948. This was preceded by 12-inch V-discs which circulated in the 1940s during WWII. These were of course preceded by Victor who had pressed one-sided, 12-inch records as early as 1903.

13-Inch
Third Man Records has pressed a few "Texas sized records" for singles by both The Raconteurs and The White Stripes. This size is particularly unusual even among novelties.

14-Inch
Victor released at least one, one-sided, 14-inch shellac record in 1903. It held a whopping 6 minutes of audio. There may have been others.  More here.

16-Inch
The first 16 inch discs were pressed by Vitaphone in the 1920s for use in their Vitaphone "talking picture" system. The 33 rpm discs merely provided audio accompaniment to their otherwise silent films. In the 1940s, the size saw a revival for use in radio transcriptions. I own several.

Travel

I am on the road Friday.
I'll be back next week.

1967 WCFL tornado coverage

With Tornado season at it's anti-climatic end this season I happened to find a recording of a WCFL broadcast covering the terrible tornadoes of April 21st 1967 in Oak Lawn, IL. It's a true historical artifact. Give this a listen.

The Arlington Radio Towers

As garish as it may seem, there were once wireless towers standing over Arlington National Cemetery.  The part of the cemetery pictures is marked as the "World War Section" which means both that it precedes WWII and that the image is facing South West. The towers were on the outskirts of Ft. Meyer, which was originally established in the Civil war as Fort Whipple. But it became unique. In 1870, The National Weather Service was founded there by General Albert J. Myer. The first flight of a military aircraft took place there. This was a military base where science happened.

It's just outside the fence of a DOD facility. There is a marker commemorating them which is a bit hard to find. It reads as follows:

"Three radio towers similar to the Eiffel tower were erected here in 1913. One stood 600 feet, and the other two 450 feet above the 200-foot elevation of the site. The word "radio" was first used instead of "wireless" in the name of this naval communications facility.  The first trans-Atlantic voice communication  was made between this station and the Eiffel tower in 1915. The nation set its clocks by the Arlington Radio time signal and listened for its broadcast weather reports. The towers were dismantled in 1941, as a menace to aircraft approaching the new Washington National Airport."

Some sources refer to the three towers as "the three sisters." Some even place their construction as early as 1911. It's difficult to trace it back that far.  It its reputed to be the first such time signal broadcast. In 1915, Creighton University in Omaha, NE built a wireless station just to receive it's time signals. That same year Western Electric used the towers to carry out that aforementioned experimental broadcast received in Paris, 3,900 miles away.  Most of that distance was over water so they tired it in the opposite direction and were received at Mare Island in California, 2,400 miles away. More here and here.

The Navy began experimenting with wireless as early as 1904. By 1909 the Navy had a 1,000 watt transmitter,and were itching for a big tower to plug into it. Given construction dates vary anywhere between 1911 and 1914. At least some of the towers were probably viable in 1912, as it was already in use by March of 1913. Using the call letters NAA, it broadcast a time signal on 113 kHz throughout the 1920s. In 1922 I found a listing for it broadcasting weather bulletins on 5950 meters, and marine forecasts on 2650 meters.  All this with a few hundred watts and a Poulsen arc.The anniversary of their construction was celebrated quietly this past February. More here.

The towers may not be entirely destroyed. They were in stead moved to Greenbury Point  at Annapolis Naval Acadamy in Maryland where they remained in use until the 1990s.  In 1999 three remaining towers (which may not be the original three) were ceded to Anne Arundel County for telecommunications. Last year the support buildings including and the transmitter bunker were demolished. There may or may not be anything left. More here.

Transcription Mystery Disc #185

This 8-inch, metal core Recordisc is recorded on both sides and labeled, sort of.  It bears the single name "KEN" in all capital letters in pencil on one side.  That first side begins with a man introducing some kids singing in a chorus. He speaks very woodenly "Hello Kenny, Edgar and the boys will sing a new chorus for you." the kids sing in harmony though a bit flat. Afterwards a woman reads a story about Mr.s Chipmunk.

Jimmy Sliderlegs


The B-side is a woman reading a very old nursery rhyme, Jimmy Sliderlegs, then plays a bit of piano. The recitation is a warning against the dangers of sliding down the bannister. The melody is the Farmer in the Dell but many different sets of lyrics have been put to it. I've clipped out the woman reading the nursery rhyme. it's quite obscure, dating to at least the mid 1800s,  making it a strange selection for a recording that must date to the early 1950s.