SoundScriber is a

dictation machine A dictation machine is a sound recording device most commonly used to record Speech communication, speech for playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorder. The name "Dictaphone" is a trademark of the ...

introduced in 1945 by The SoundScriber Corp. (

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, United States). It records sound with a groove embossed into soft

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

discs with a stylus. by Soundscriber's chief engineer, has technical details of the machines Similar competing recording technologies are the Gray Audograph and Dictaphone DictaBelt. The machine can record 15 minutes of dictation on each side of a thin (.01-inch) flexible 6-inch vinyl disc spinning at a rate of RPM, at a density of 200 grooves per inch. The discs originally cost about 10 cents each. The machine has two tonearms: a recording arm driven by a worm gear that creates the groove with a diamond

stylus A stylus is a writing utensil or tool for scribing or marking into softer materials. Different styluses were used to write in cuneiform by pressing into wet clay, and to scribe or carve into a wax tablet. Very hard styluses are also used to En ...

, and a pickup arm with a sapphire stylus for playback. A foot-operated playback/pause—and-reverse switch is used for transcribing. Unlike some other recording technologies of the time, the recording stylus creates the groove not by cutting the vinyl but by embossing (plastically deforming) the surface, leaving no waste plastic chips to get into the mechanical works. The format remained popular for two decades before it was superseded by magnetic tape recorders, due in part to the robustness of the discs and the ease with which they could be mailed. The green discs with their characteristic square center hole came in three sizes, 6 inches (known as "Mail Chute") that played for fifteen minutes per side, a 5-inch disc with 10 minutes of recording time per side, and 4-inch "Memo Discs" with eight minutes of recording time. The soft vinyl medium limited the number of times a disc could be played back without degradation of the audio quality. A SoundScriber is a plot device in the 1952

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 190? was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion-picture cont ...

film Sudden Fear, as the brand name can be clearly seen on it, even though Crawford's character claims that she had it built herself.

References

External links

Picture of SoundScriber Disc
with

Audio Recording HistoryHistory of the Dictation Equipment Industry
Audiovisual introductions in 1945 Audio storage 1945 in technology Products introduced in 1945 {{Product-stub