US839372A - Phonograph record or blank. - Google Patents

Description

I T; AfBDISONQ I PHONOGRAPH RECORD 0R BLANK; APPLIOATI OI FILED APR. 29, 1906.

mam], mm. as, 190';

0 f Inyentor:

, by 0 Y I j. mime-sums""P T u f f IH O M'AS A. meet; "iJLEWEL'LY PARK-1f l'oaAN E, 'iiEW JERSEY,

mil it may concern t ,f 'fthe; United States, residing at jentegizcel tain new anduse'ful Improvements 1. the snow;

is a description.

dation ed February 11, 1903, Serial No.

'3 The object. of my inventionis the tion of a phonograph-blank suitable for ref1 ceiying a cut record corresponding accuneous surface variations or disturbances, so

' that no, sound i lzbe reproduced other than that representative of the true record. When I amatrix or mold. is usedfso as to faithfully copy such a masteras I shall describe, the

.- onglnal or duplicate, in a number of respects, which will be pointed out. Y

I I find that order to produce an absolutelyiperfectfmaster from which a corre-' sponding matrix or mold can be subsematerial or substance which-is perfectly amorphous and without-crystallization, that a" substantially continuous shaving to be cut h-a'character as'to be readily cut by recorder in order that the. latter may fo'rmga perfectly smooth record, which while representative of the true vibrations shall materials produbescratching andot er errt'raneous sounds. Whenama'ter al of this character is'employed from which; to conrelatively soft character muchdess poweris required to cut it, ,so tha t all .of the sound 'F vibrations will be recorded, even those representing the .very weak overtones of, nusical instruments; also, that the depth of the record an bejconsiderably increased, so as toermit very loud sounds-lto'be re- Park, -,Orange,, in the county of I V ..w ny deep; Essex nd; State of New, Jersey, vhave my honograp'h Records or Blanks, of which ilLS'fl plication is a division of an app 1i -v alcohol andin hot Waterv and rately to sound-Waves and free from extra-.

5 quen'tly made- "it isnec'essary to employ a, 3-

- hoti. possess superfluous surface variationsthat at-the presentltime and with resent struct the master, Ifind that owing to its 'ssI'GNoR-ro NEWcJERSEYPATENT COIVIPANY, OF WEST ORANGE, I JERsEY, -A coaroaz r ou'or NEW JERSEY; r a

WB NK,

l fS pecificatioii a: retterssatatjf Patented ta. 25,1906, itia'retrm 'n, eoastsair 142,928. Divided and thi s a l ieatitn filedAprilZQ 1905- Serial No. 257,979.

I I V p I r corded without danger of'the recorder viit known that-.1, TnoMAs A Enrsou, a"

brating clear ofthesurfac and, finally, that 5 a perfectly smooth record will be out, even' with a substantially continuous chip, so as to entirely eliminate the scratchy sounds now due to the mere cutting of the present material. v v v Preferably-the invention consists in the employment, for the manufacture of the master, of a neutral or nearly neutral soap soluble in by preference a soda soap and i'n-the manipulation of this 6 material 'to put it into the required form for use in receivinga sound-record.

' Referenceisherebymade to the accom .panyin drawing, which illustrates diagrammatical y a masterrecord embodying one '7 form of my invention. I 1

In carryingthe invention into effect I refer to proceed as follows; Any'ofthe er qualities of the soapsgof commerce are cut in thin slices and if necessary, are dried. Some 7' of these soaps-like Pears soap, for exam ple-contain' so little water that a special drying is not necessary. The dry sliced inaterial is now dissolved in ethylalcohol maintained in a heated state by hot water in a water -j acket, for instance-until the alcohol is nearly saturated. A small quantity, of g wa'teris added to-clear the solution, which is then filtered through a finescloth in a funnel heated by a surrounding.ivaterjacket. The filtered solution is now heated in any-suitable way until enough alcohol is evaporated'to re-. sult in the production of a viscous mass capa ble of being cast into a. bla-n kby any ofthe' well known casting processes nojw'used' fo'r manufacturing phonograph-blanks. These blanks may be either disklike orcylindrical or. of other 'form, according to the.

particular kind of recordswhich are'to be made, The blank after it hasbec'ome cool'is hard and firm enough to maintain its shape.

undernormal conditions," its: hardness" de pending upon the amount of water -alcool remaining in the material. Blanks m'ade: in this Way are now turnedfroughly' tothei r approximate desired-size and are allowe dto, season in a warm room 'for several da s, duringwhich they become;gradually bar er, due to further loss' ..of alcohol and water: ,Tlie blanks are thenready foruse after they hays '1 been turnedt t o the proper size for receiving the record. Phonr *raph ilanks made in this way are transparent, perfectly amorphous, non-crystalline, anduuiforrn in structure throughout, and they are capable of receiving a record of sound-vibrations whose track is peri ectly polished. 'In these respects blanks or records made as I now suggest are distinguished from blanks or records made of the recording material now universally used, since the latter is not soluble in water is very hard and sernierystalline, and results in-the formation of a record which reproduction produces scratchy and extraneoussounds in addition to those constituting trio record itself.

Bhonograph-blanksproduced as I suggest are now used for receiving a sound-record made in any suitable sound-recording machine, either of the phonograph type, in which a record of varying depth is formed, or of the grainophone type, imwhieh a sinuous record of substantially uniform depth is formed. In the making of original records at the presenttime, whether-for use as inasters or not, the ordinary =wax-like material is quiteiriable, so that the materialis removed by the recorder in the form of short chips. The removal of thematerial in'this waymakes the record-groove quite rough, and this roughness of the record-groove is materiall; increased if the recorder cuts too deeply into the material. Consequently at the present time very loud records are more scratchy than softer ones. With my improved recording material as used by me, owingto its relative softness, the recorder cuts out a practically continuous shaving and makes a perfectly smooth track, and this is true even if the out of ,the record is quite deep. Consequently by the use of the new material I am enabled to employ recorders having a diameter as low as .015 of an inch, whereby I am enabled with no increase in the. .ower used to cut a record'at least twice as eep as is now possible Wi h the recorders of standard sizenamely, about .040 of an inch in diameter.

The new material I find is too soft to permit of direct reproduction by a reproducing device, since the small waves will be immediately obliterated by the reproducer. I therefore use a'record obtained as described as a'master, from which to construct a ma or mold. To this end therefore I first provide themaster with a conducting coat ing, preferably by a process of vacuous .deposit, as described in my Patent No. 713,863, dated November 18, 19.02. The coating thus formed is extremely thin and .is so uniforrn'that it follows all the'variations of the record, however minute. Besides this, a conducting coating if a plied in this way is so smooth and polishe that when incorporated in the recordesurface of the matrix or mold it'will-not of itself produce any extra neous' sound. Having coated the master with a conducting-film, I now electroplate copper thereon until a layer of the desired thickness is securcd,-after which the original master is removed, either by shrinking or dissolving it out. The matrix or mold is now prsfcrably'backed up by a protecting-shell and is used for the -production of duplicates in any well--lrnown way, formed of the usual hard. wax-like materials. For instance, the matrix or mold can be employed for making duplicates by an expanding process, as specifically described in any Patent No. 713,209, dated. November 11, 1902, in which a blank is engaged loosely with amatrix'and expanded by heat and pressure totake an impression therefrom, after which the duplicates are contracted radially, so as to clear the record on the matrix, from which they are thenrcmoved, or in inspection with a casting process, described in. my Patent No. 667,662, dated. i ebruary 5, 1901, in which imolten .WaX-lih material introdu-cei'l into a mold and allowed to set therein, .after which the resulting duplicate is contracted, so as to clear the record on the mold, from which. it is then removed, or in connection with any other desired ,process by which .a duplicate record can be obtained from. a matrix or mold. In any event the duplicates so produced .will be superior to those made at the present time from the matrices or molds secured from masters composed of the usual hard wax-like material in the following rospects; First, owing to the iunorphous, noncrystalline, and uniform character of the master the record formed therein will be free from extra neous sounds, and this will also be true of the resulting duplicates; second, owing to the fact that the master is formed of com aratively soft material the record made t ercin is more nearly representative of the sound-vibrations than is possible with harder materials, so that the resulting du licates will more faithfully reproduce the original sounds, including even the finer overtones of musical instruments; third, owing to the ease with which the material can becut the record formed in the master can be ine'tde very deep, so that the reproductions obtained from the. resulting duplicates will be correspondingly increased in volume.

While I. have described as the preferred material one formed by the dissolving of a soluble soap, by then clarifying the solution, and b *finally evaporating the solvent, it will be un erstood that other soluble, amorphous, non-crystalline, and uniform substances ma be employed in addition to soap, by whic harder or softer blanks can be obtained.

Having now described my invention, what i claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is asfollows:

1. A phonograph record or blank formed of a perfectly amorphous, solidified, watersoluble soap, substantially as set forth.

2. A master for use in the production of Y matrices 9r molds, com rising a suitable mbduction by directeng'agement'of areprodum lo let formed of a erfect y amorphous, walkerin -stylus, substgmtially as seo f rth. I soluble-soap an carrying arsmoothpulished lhis "specification slgned. and' witnesspd 'squrid-recurd'bgroove 1free ,fronfl eitraneous this 28th day Of April, 1905; ,5. vari a tions, su stantia yas'seu or't u i j A phonogmph record or blank composed of a soap ha rd enough to receive a pol- Witnesses: lshedsurface from a cuttmg toolor stylus, A FRANK L.- DYER, but'not hard enough to be capable .of repro- ANNA R. KLEH-M.

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