40-MINUTE RECORDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 267, 1 February 1928, Page 14

40-MINUTE RECORDS

NOVEL ON SIX DISCS BOON TO THE BLIND Gramophone libraries for the use of the blind, which will comprise a fulllength novel in half-a-dozen 12-inch records, have been brought within practical reach by a new process evolved by Captain H. J. Round at Marconi House. Captain Round, working with a specially adapted plant at the Vocation factory, has produced reading records which run for 40 minutes and reproduce inteligibly some 5,000 words a side. These records are of the ordinary size and thickness, but they have, besides a secret device which cannot at present be divulged, from three to four times the number of grooves, and rotate at one-third the speed—about 28 revolutions instead of the usual 80 a minute. They have to be played oft electrically—that is, with one or two wireless amplifying valves and loudspeaker or head-phones attached to an ordinary small gramophone. “I am not yet wholly satisfied with the results.” Captain Round told an “Observer” representative recently, “for records of the kind one must have a superfine cutting and playing-off point, and I haven't yet found a point which entirely suits. That, however, is quite a simple mechanical matter which presents no real difficulty. 1 nope to be aoiu to produce the point 1 want in a matter of a few days. “With the present records,” he added, “I find that j. get as good results towards the centre of the disc as at the rim. By using less of the surface, and not cutting so far towards tne centre, l estimate that 1 ought to be able to produce discs winch wouid run for two to three uours each side, and intend trying to CIO so.” Musical Reproduction He indicated that he did not regard die device as a commercial one, out it ought to De possime to bring it within tne reach or nospitais ana cue blind at a total cost, including one or two valves ior heuupnone reproduction only of about £iu an instrument, it could equany be used for musical reproduction, but unfortunately there were at present certain commercial and patent aiiiicuities in the way of tne extended use of the electrical gramophone, “in cue near future,” lie said, "it may be round possible to put an electrical gramophone on the market for £SU or so, and with this, and the new record, one should able to get a whole symphony Horn one side without any break whatever.” The 40-minute reading records should cost no more than the ordinary one, since there would be no expensive artiste to pay. An experimental disc played on an ordinary table-model and amplified in a loud speaker by two valves, “The Observer” representative found to be both as clear and loud as good wireless reception. Captain lan Fraser, of St. Dunstan’s, admitted that he was very much impressed with a record of five Irish short stories which he had tried over. “I do not want to raise hopes when the scheme is still in the experimental stage,” he declared, “but' the results are certainly good. Ever-since I.cajne to St. Dunstan’s I have been on the look-out for some mechanical method of reading aloud, for it would be an inestimable boon to blind people. There are many who enjoy being. y%ad .tp in. the home, but it is not always possible to find the right person- to read to them. This thirty or forty* minute record seems to be the thing we want: it not only avoids annoying breaks, but should prove cheap and handy for sending through the post, for- one* could presumably get a whole novel for the price of six or so.” Captain Round played ordinary dance and orchestral records on the electrical gramophone. In clarity and volume the result was so astonishing that one wondered why the adaptation had not yet spread to the smaller public and dance halls and homes. A hundred or more couples could have danced to that amplified record exactly as they would to an actual orchestra in a large room.