The Reproduction of Cylinder Recordings [Part 3]

Abstract

The sapphire stylus furnished as standard equipment with the Ediphone or Dictaphone will adequately play back cylinders cut at pitches of 100, 150, and 160 lines per inch. For playback of cylinders cut at a pitch of 200 lines per inch the standard sapphire must be removed and a much smaller one substituted. A cylinder cut at a particular pitch must be played back on a machine equipped with a feed bar machined to accept that particular pitch and no other or the recording will be ruined. It is our practice in the Archives of Folk and Primitive Music to determine the pitch of every set of cylinders before attempting re-recording. This is done by means of a microscope equipped with a special eyepiece for measuring the pitch of cylinders.