Making gramophone records
Recording involves capturing soundwaves in a tangible form so that they can be played again. Images from the Daily Herald Archive show us how gramophone records were made.
Daily Herald Photograph: Making vocalion gramophone records Daily Herald Photograph: Making vocalion gramophone records (1932-01-20) by Cardew, LeslieNational Science and Media Museum
In 1887, German American inventor Emile Berliner (1851–1929) introduced the gramophone, a technology for recording and playing back sound.
Daily Herald Photograph: Woman selecting Christmas recordsNational Science and Media Museum
But the machine was just half the equation. The grooves inscribed in records stored the sounds that gramophone machines played back.
A photographic print of Industries, Gramophones A photographic print of Industries, GramophonesNational Science and Media Museum
By the early 1900s, Berliner settled on a winning combination of wax, shellac, and metal stamps as the foundation of his patented record making process—a process that worked on an industrial scale.
Daily Herald Photograph: Making gramophone recordsNational Science and Media Museum
Recording in wax
Early recording involved etching grooves in wax discs. As the turntable spun it also moved sideways under the ‘cutting head’, the stylus slicing a groove into the wax from the outer edge toward the centre.
Daily Herald Photograph: Making gramophone recordsNational Science and Media Museum
Once cut, the wax discs—now ‘masters’—were inspected and processed. In this photo, we can see two technicians carefully inspecting the grooves of the wax master to ensure the absence of obvious flaws that might spoil the recording.
Making stamps
Playing back from the wax masters destroyed the grooves. Instead, the masters were dusted with graphite (a conductor) and then submerged in a bath of copper sulphate and sulphuric acid for several hours. This process built up a layer of metal on the outside of the wax master.
Daily Herald Photograph: Making vocalion gramophone recordsNational Science and Media Museum
The result? A copper negative that could be used to stamp grooves into a record.
To help ensure the longevity of the stamp, the copper was plated with nickel and a heavy steel backing was affixed to each stamp. Here, a technician uses hydraulic pressure to affix a backing.
A technician places the prepared master records, or stamps, into a cupboard for safekeeping. As the wax master is planed down for reuse, the stamps are very valuable as the only source of the recording!
Daily Herald Photograph: Making gramophone recordsNational Science and Media Museum
Preparing shellac
Until at least the 1940s, gramophone discs were pressed in shellac. This photo shows a worker feeding the shellac mixture through hot rollers, making it pliable and ready for pressing.
Pressing records
The heated shellac was then placed between the stamps and pressed using a vice under firm hydraulic pressure. Each stamp could press about 1,000 records before wearing out.
Daily Herald Photograph: Making gramophone recordsNational Science and Media Museum
Preparing for distribution
Once pressed and hardened, stacks of records were individually trimmed...
Daily Herald Photograph: Making gramophone recordsNational Science and Media Museum
... wiped clean of dust and shellac fragments...
... and placed in sleeves. Only then could the records be boxed and shipped out to stores.
Daily Herald Photograph: Workers assembling HMV radiosNational Science and Media Museum
‘They shall have music’
Making records was just one part of a larger equation. Record companies also had to meet increasing demand for gramophone machines.
Here, technicians at the HMV factory in Hayes, Middlesex, work to complete more than 20,000 gramophone players due to ship over the coming days.
At the same factory, production was underway on affordable portable units suitable for personalised listening. The trend for smaller devices continues to the present as listening technologies becomes ever more customisable.
All images are from the Science Museum Group collection. Copyright Mirrorpix, Hulton Archive/Getty Images, and TopFoto.
