In a message dated 9/12/2010 2:14:39 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jim...@earthlink.net writes:
"notice that he, like virtually all writers on the subject, is ignorant of or has chosen to ignore Charles Sumner Tainter's 1880 Home Notes on deposit at the Smithsonian Institution" ------------------ There is really nothing to be ignorant of, or anyone's "choosing to ignore." Lateral recording has a long and distinguished history if one wishes to really dig (and well before Tainter too)... Are you sure you really mean the year "1880" for the Notebooks references to Tainter's lateral recording in wax (and not 1881)? see PHP: "Its floating-stylus principle (341,214) lurked as a threat for the infant gramophone industry, despite the written opinion by Pollok & Mauro on Sept. 28, 1891 that E. Berliner's laterally-recorded, groove-driven process did not infringe the basic Bell-Tainter patents." In other words, there was no impediment whatever to Berliner's (patented) work in lateral recording since there was no previous Tainter patent for such (or Volta Labs reduction to practice). Even Leon Scott used the lateral technique, albeit with lampblack, and Wm Hollingshead of NYC experimented with lateral recording in wax in 1878! Why do you "ignore" that? Ray was quite familiar with Tainter's surviving Notebooks. Invention is an ongoing process (then and now), and one must not only come up with an idea but reduce it to practicality. After all, Thomas Young was recording sound (laterally) on a wax drum in 1806... Rewriting of history is hardly necessary in this instance, although we should have as much info as possible. Allen _www.phonobooks.com_ (http://www.phonobooks.com) _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
