Let the Disc Be Pressed While sound recording became profitable in America through its use for entertainment, an inventor was working diligently on a new form of recording material for use by the phonograph. As early as 1889, Emil Berliner experimented with flat, round platters of celluloid in the hopes of extending the cylinders’ two-minute play time and lowering the number of r.p.m.’s that were necessary for clarity. Berliner called his recording material the ‘disc’ and sound was cut into one side using the lateral (side to side) method. In his 'Patent History of the Phonograph' Koenigsberg mentions that Charles Cros' French patent of 1878, without model or plans, predicted the disc as a recording medium. Cros even foretold a process similar to the complex photo-engraving method of pressing discs that Berliner experimented with at the time of his US patent. There were other experiments with discs that preceded Berliner's, but he was the first to produce a reliable disc recording with a practical playback machine. One of the most worthy rivals to Edison's inventive genius in the phonograph industry, Berliner was a self-made man who first gained notariety for an improvement to the telephone receiver. In 1897, Berliner, together with Eldridge Johnson and Levi Montross, developed a spring-operated version of Berliner’s device that used improved discs made of shellac and cotton flocking, and had a cone amplifier built into the case. Berliner originally named his disc player, the gramophone, but when he joined with Johnson to form the Victor Talking Machine Company (later, RCA Victor), they renamed the improved device, the Victrola, and by 1906 they had taken hold of the sound reproduction industry. Inexpensive compared to the cylinder phonographs at the time, and, with the now classic fox terrier trademark and popular hits on their 7” discs, the Victrolas were widely distributed in Europe and the United States. Further improvements to the disc phonograph—including the addition of a diamond stylus and more heat and wear-resistant chemical composites—were introduced by some of Edison’s employees. And, by roughly 1928, the industry-standard phonograph marketed for home and public entertainment: had a floating stylus—with a diamond tip on higher priced models, used 10” discs electronically cut according to the lateral method on both sides, rotated its discs at 78 r.pm.’s for 5 minutes per side, and amplified sound waves through a cone. To this day, many people insist that the cylinder format and vertical cut method produced the highest quality of sound recording, specifically noting the sound distortion that comes from the inner grooves of discs as the surface speed slows down, a problem that does not plague wax cylinders which retain a constant surface speed from beginning to end. For this reason, both Edison and his son who eventually took over the family business, insisted on the continued distribution of cylinders up until 1945, despite the overshadowing commercial success of discs. Edison did not include the artists names on earlier pressings, choosing little known acts, insisting that the sound quality was more important than the people who produced the sound waves recorded onto disc. Such optimism would soon be erased when RCA Victor and Columbia began releasing exclusive pressings with special label colors and designs catering to the upper crust, and the royalty system was instituted to protect artists’ rights. Interestingly, both Edison, in 1926, and RCA Victor, in 1931, marketed long-playing 12 inch discs with fewer r.p.m.’s, capable of holding twenty minutes of music or more on each side, but neither was a commercial success—the buying public would need more time before it would accept the LP format.