Library Collections: Document: Full Text


As I Saw It

Creator: Robert Irwin (author)
Date: 1955
Publisher: American Foundation for the Blind
Source: American Printing House for the Blind, Inc., M. C. Migel Library
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2

Previous Page   Next Page   All Pages 


Page 26:

258  

This drove home to thoughtful students of the subject the limitations of embossed literature as a medium for reading by the blind. It was evident that some other medium must be found. The new approach proved to be that of sound and thus, in time, Talking Books came into being.

259  

Probably every slow finger-reader had long dreamed of having books recorded on phonograph records so that he would absorb the subject matter without making any more conscious effort than did his seeing associates. Experiments had been carried on with the Dictaphone as a medium for teaching spelling, and for some other work, in the day schools for the blind in Cleveland, Minneapolis, and probably in other places. A study of the subject made by the author also revealed that the use of the phonograph as a medium for providing literature for the blind had occurred to Thomas A. Edison as early as 1877 when he filed his first patent on a talking machine, the "Tinfoil Phonograph." Edison, however, never followed up this idea, probably because he saw no commercial benefit from exploiting this application of sound-recording.

260  

Back about 1930 nearly all phonograph records for home use turned at the rate of 78 revolutions per minute. Electrical transcriptions for broadcasting purposes, usually made on sixteen-inch discs, were being recorded at the rate of 33 1/3 revolutions per minute. However, the Radio Corporation of America had experimented with some twelve-inch records for home use at 33 1/3 rpm. This project had been abandoned mainly because the pick-up arms (which mounted the needle) were so heavy that they destroyed the records within a very few playings.

261  

The Edison Laboratories at Menlo Park, New Jersey, were approached by the American Foundation for the Blind on the subject of carrying on experiments with the recording of literature on records, but nothing came of it. The expense of conducting experimental work at that laboratory, or at any other commercial laboratory, was beyond the resources of the Foundation. Therefore, an application was made to the Carnegie Corporation for a grant of $25,000 to finance experimental work in the development of a twelve-inch record which would have a playing time sufficient to make books issued on phonograph records practicable.

262  

When deciding upon the processes to be used in recording Talking Books for the blind every possible method of recording had to be taken into consideration such as lateral recording, hill-and-dale recording, recording on films, recording on wire. Other questions had to be answered; if the material was to be recorded on discs, at what speed should the turn-table revolve; should the usual method be employed of having the turn-table revolve at the standard speed, or should advantage be taken of a suggested method of recording by which the turntable speed varies gradually, making it possible for the material to pass under the needle at a constant velocity known as constant linear velocity recording.

263  

Shortly before the appeal was made to the Carnegie Corporation, a William Corbett, who had had some experience in recording had been interested by the Foundation in the subject. He put the agency in touch with Lincoln Thompson, an engineer living in Bridgeport, Connecticut, who had access to a recording studio belonging to the estate of a wealthy man, who, before his death, had played around with recording as a hobby. In this studio Mr. Corbett and Mr. Thompson and representatives of the American Foundation for the Blind made a few experimental records and demonstrated to their satisfaction that fifteen minutes of acceptable speech recording could be made on a twelve-inch record revolving at 33 1/3 rpm. The demonstration of one of these records before Dr. Frederick Paul Keppel, President of Carnegie Corporation, convinced him and his board that the matter had sufficient merit to justify a grant of $25,000 to the American Foundation for the Blind. Jackson O. Kleber, an engineer from the staff of Electrical Research Products, Inc., popularly known as ERPI, was employed in 1932 to set up a modest laboratory and conduct some experimental work. The objective of this laboratory was to perfect a long-playing record which would reproduce a satisfactory quality of recorded reading matter at a cost which would make practicable the recording of books.

264  

The laboratories of the Radio Corporation of America had developed a record material mix which contained some abrasive mixed with vinylite which was sufficiently flexible to withstand the jars encountered in transportation and would not break if dropped on the floor. At the same time it was sufficiently tough to last through from fifty to seventy-five or more readings when the proper needle was used and was changed in accordance with instructions.

265  

It was decided to make the records about 80/1000 of an inch in thickness. This seemed the optimum thickness required for durability in transportation and convenience in the press feeding during manufacture. There has been a general trend, however, toward thinner records which are easier for the blind to handle and which would impose less strain on frail readers when they are handling a dozen or more records at a time. The thinner record also has the advantage of a saving in raw material cost.

Previous Page   Next Page

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56    All Pages