I've heard some Edison cylinders (as played on an Edison) and they sounded at least as good as a 78. Less scratched up too.

We get the term "Album" from 78s too, because they were sold in what looked like picture albums. It took a fair number of 78s to do (for example) an opera.

xpost with Jesse!

My favorite EP is probably The Pretenders' Extended Play. Though the 10 inch ones were coooooool.

And "album" comes from a bunch of individual non-LP records packaged together.

Right?

No. They were invented by a guy named Al, who was notoriously lazy.

Gaaaaaaah.

It is lovely outside. However, my air-conditioner is blocking the window that would normally give us the most ventilation (it has a fan, which is on, but it's a wussy fan). So we have a standing fan on the other side of the room which is supposed to be turning its head back and forth and distributing air to the corner of the room where my computer lives. AND IT HAS STOPPED TURNING. It's just standing over there making a clicking sound and soon I will kill it dead.

Y'all remember EPs, right? RIGHT??!

I love those little plastic things that you put in the middle of 45s to make them play on a regular turntable.

We get the term "Album" from 78s too, because they were sold in what looked like picture albums. It took a fair number of 78s to do (for example) an opera.

Got a bunch of those that were my grandfather's. One of these days I need to go through them and see what they are.

We have a bunch of records from various dead relatives (really), and I remember playing old 78s for my grandfather, music that was the Britney Spears of his day (the 1920s), when I was in my teens. I have heard of EPs, the same way that I have heard of LPs, but I never associated them with "how long the record is". I only did that by the size of the record.

Which, I am sure, is not literally the same standard.

I do remember being 18 or 19, and moving our household into a new apartment, and handling the records we'd got from our Taunton aunts. They had huge collections of classical and opera, and there was some liner note on the record box comparing a soprano to The Swan, an opera singer in the 1800s who could make you sob with a high note. The note pointed out that The Swan had died before recording equipment existed, so that we modern people will never have that experience that people of the 1800s did.

Kind of a revelation, you know? The very idea that people in the past cannot be knowable, the way that we can know people now. Not that Britney Spears is especially worth knowing.

I'm pretty sure the only recording of an actual castrato is one of the last ones, when he was old. So there's a whole kind of voice that we can't hear. AFAIK.

No. They were invented by a guy named Al, who was notoriously lazy.

BAH.

However, my air-conditioner is blocking the window that would normally give us the most ventilation

God, mine too. Makes me nuts. Actually, is it tempting fate too much to take the AC out for the season?

It's supposed to be 88 on Thursday. I think I'll give it another week.

Well, I'm not doing anything about it tonight, so.

Once upon a time records came in four flavors, known by the revolutions per minute required to play them normally -- 16, 33 1/3, 45, 78.

78s were popular from the advent of the Victorola to the rise of the LP, I believe in the 1940s. Old blues, gospel, and jazz 78s are big collector's items.

33 1/3 RPM records were better known as LPs. LPs delivered 20-30 minutes of music per side, compared to the 10-15 minutes or so per side of the 78. Thus, LPs rapidly replaced 78s as the primary means of distributing music. By the 1950s the record companies barely sold 78s. By the 1980s you were hard-pressed to find a record player that had a "78" option.

16 RPM records were meant to deliver even more music on a 12-inch platter than an LP. Problem was that a 16 RPM record was very lo-fi, and the format didn't last all that long. However, it was a lot of fun playing LPs at 16 RPM for the Thurl Ravenscroft-like sound.

And then there were 45s. Two songs, that's all. But dirt cheap. They were the currency of musical youth for years, until the C90 blank tape arrived and the mix arrived.

By the 1970s, tape was starting to replace vinyl. It was more portable (imagine trying to put a turntable in the car) and could hold more music (an LP a side on the C90 tape. Reel-to-reel came first, followed by the 8-track, and finally the cassette. They eroded vinyl sales, but it really wasn't until the CD -- and the ensuing record company push onto the format -- that "killed" vinyl. By the late 80s, new albums were CD and cassette only, not on vinyl. LPs did live on, though, through independent releases and Pearl Jam continuing to print LPs.

And there's a brief lesson in the history of the vinyl record. Hec will be by to correct my mistakes shortly.

imagine trying to put a turntable in the car

There were some cars in the late '50s that had in-dash record players (they only played 45s).