Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-06-02
A MUSIC CANNERY
By Frederic ]. Haskin


f. lNOntlnueO from E01tOFlhI EdSCJ
enough in the auditorium record poor
ly. so the test record is made with all
he pomp and circumstance that at
tends making a disk whose duplicates
Will be run off by the thousands, just
to see II the voice is of the right quail
Iity to record properly.
AS a general rule. the best voices
make the best records. The singer
who couples the greatest natural en-
dowment with the finest technique
will have the least trouble. Very high
tones and very low tones, however,
present special difficulties. Something
of the same sort is true OF instru-
mental music. The piano Is the most
difficult of all instruments properly to
record.
! Phonograph manufacturers have
prediction for passing over the me-
chanical side of their business as light
ily as possible. They seem to feel that
a look behind the scenes, into the
springs and disks and pulleys breeds
disillusionment. 1t is here, however,
that the real wonder lies. There is
perhaps no achievement of modern sci
tence that comes as close to magic as
the turning of jagged square or gum
my black shellac into thing that
stores up the greatest music of the
"A yes ready at the turn of finger to re-
lease it as often as you will, after COM
poser and singer are dust.
The actual process of making rec
ord is simple enough. The singer
goes into a room specially constructed
to produce the best acoustical proper
ties. He faces a square funnel whose
small end leads to n recording disk
made of "a plastic material" In the
nature of that plastic material lies the
secret of perfect reproduction, and the
formula for its composition is not eX-
actly being printed on hand-bills for
b. general distribution.
Behind the singer the orchestra is
ranged. If the number features some
special band or orchestra, the play
Iers are of course brought especially TO
Camden. but for ordinary accompani-
ments the company maintains Its own
organization of thirty men. They
have to be artists OF the first quality,
because there is always that little re-
Icording imp of the cabinet to be con-
sidered. with his irritating demand for
absolute perfection. If a mistake is
made he seiZes it gleefully and trans
mits it to all the thousands of his chill
Idren who are stamped from him, to
trumpet abroad wherever they are
played. So the director will stop the
whole proceeding at any point with
tap of his baton, If his ear catches the
slightest error
Visitors are not encouraged in this
inner sanctum. The faintest whisper
or rustic is caught up and recorded
just as faithfully as the aria itself. If
. visitor does gain admittance, he notes
Z hat the arrangement of the orchestra
IS quite different from the ordinary
one in opera or concert work. Some
iof the men are perched on high, some
I.AF n avsF, n1n fn hA
cording cabinet while others are with
drawn. Each instrument has a diff
ferent carrying power and a different
recording quality. so that a special ar
rangement is necessary to get the
proper effect.
When the number has been played
the little imp in the cabinet has every
itone-shade safely locked in his bosom.
They take and give him an electro
plating bath that coats him with en-
during nickel, and there you have your
master record. One such master rec
ord is put on file, and from a second
The ordinary disk records are made.
The black material that you see in a
photograph record is a composition Of
shellac, which softens under the infiu-
ence of heat. The material Is rolled
out into great sheets and cut into
squares twelve inches on a side.
These squares harden as they cool
sent down to the room where the i'm
pressing is done. Here they are laid
on a hot table a moment to soften,
and then placed over the nickel mas
ter record. They are stamped and
trimmed-and there is your Caruso or
TetrazZini ready for the cabinet.
The life of a record is matter of
some interest to the owner of phono-
graph. With ordinary use, a disk
should last indefinitely. OF course.
the friction of steel, tungsten or sap
phire on even the hardest material will
eventually wear it out, but unless you
play some particular piece many hours
a day. there is no deterioration. The
Iquestion of "overtones' comes up in
this connection. 1t has been stated
that the overtones wear off a record
more quickly than the notes of the
dominant octave, and thus spoil the
quality of the recorded voice, even
while leaving pitch and volume unim-
paired. 1t is true enough that the
quality of any musical note depends
largely on the overtones, but according
to the local company at least, there is
nothing in the theory that overtones
are destroyed by normal playing of a
record.
After the disk itself, the most inter
sting part of the phonograph mechan-
ism is the motor which revolves the
record under the needle. The motor
has to be little wonder of its kind
, 1t must work at an absolutely even
ispeed-more even than that of a clock
mechanism, because a clock may have
compensating defects and still keep
. time. If the phonograph motor works
a shade too fast or too slow, the whole
! effect is marred. A change of speed
fnot only spoils tine tempo of the num-
ber being played, but actually changes
the pitch of the notes given out as
well. This company estimates that If
the springs they put into their cabi-
nets were Joined together, years sup
ply would reach from London to New
York.
Much of the mechanical side Of
phonograph- building is of course very
like similar processes in any other
craft. The record, the motor, and
the little mica disk whose vibration
does the actual singing are the three
unique points. The worlds whole mica
production is picked over by the phon-
ograph builders in their search for the
most perfect pieces, and only the best
OF 1t is sufficiently fiawIess for use.
The phonograph industry as a whole
is unique, not only in the Industrial
field, but in it's relation to art and So
ciety. 1t is putting music for the first
time in history on a footing similar to