page_title: Operaphone Records
section_title: Format
hierarchical_section_title: Operaphone Records / Format
caption_attribution_description: English: label of Operaphone 1007, and (highly tattered) original sleeve. Performer: Charles W. Harrison Song: I'm Falling in Love With Someone Format: 8-inch vertical-cut 78rpm, black shellac
context_page_description: Operaphone Records was a record company in existence from 1915 until 1921, who released numerous phonograph records cut in the hill-and-dale and universal-cut methods.
context_section_description: Most Operaphone discs are vertically cut, but there is not consistency regarding the groove types of these discs.  Some use the narrow-cut process similar to Edison Diamond Discs, while others use the sapphire-ball cut of Pathé Records which is to be expected as some of Operaphone's masters originated from that company.  The very earliest Operaphone discs were 7 inches in diameter, vertically cut, with a paint-filled, etched label.  This was a very shortly-lived series, as an 8-inch series of vertically-cut discs quickly introduced.  It was claimed that these played as long as a twelve-inch discs.  The painted label was replaced by an etched, frosted label similar in appearance to the Edison Diamond Disc, but this labeling format was replaced in August 1916 by a standard paper label.  Ten-inch, vertically cut discs were released beginning in July 1918, and then a switch was made in July 1919 to the universal-cut format.
caption: Early, paint-filled etched-label 8" Operaphone disc and tattered original sleeve
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