[Paul Stamler]

"Adrian Tuddenham" wrote in message
id.invalid...

It often occurs very noticeably at the end of 8" 'Broadcast" records
made by the UK branch of the Vocalian Co. For a long while I thought it
was because the Marconi recording process, which is what they used,
might have been equipped with a long whippy cutting tool which began to
chatter at slow surface speeds near the end of the disc.

Some time ago, I discussed this matter with two disc cutting engineers,
the late Peter Copeland and (the still very much alive) Sean Davies.
They came to the conclusion that it was mainly due to the wax cooling on
the lathe turntable during the cutting session (no nitrate in those
days).

It would be useful to keep a note of these examples and try to relate
them back to the recording conditions. Were any know to occur during
summer or were they all recorded in winter? Were they more common on
location and/or in a recording van, where the air temperature would be
lower or the wax ovens less effective?

An interesting project for anyone with enough time to spare.

Indeed. This makes sense to me, that some parameters would change as the wax
blank cooled. The recording in question, and its flip side, were cut on
January 23, 1923, while the other two which show (slightly different)
artifacts were cut November 14, 1922. I have no reason to suspect they were
cut anyplace but the Gennett studio in Richmond, Indiana, where it gets
plenty cold in the winter and even in the autumn.

Could there have been some sort of stick-slip (violining) happening between
the cutting stylus and the wax, and would the frequency of that have perhaps
gone down as the wax cooled? The fact that it alternates up and down as the
record turns makes something like this plausible, if the blank started out
cooler on one half than the other.

Peace,
Paul