Phil Brewer's Blog

Much earlier, maybe even in the 30’s, there was another device called a hi-fi. This was again a very large piece of wooden furniture, attractively designed to house the speakers, the phono- or properly phonograph, and then receiver. Since again, this used tube technology, these devices were very large, and quite fragile in their way.

You especially needed to be sure you located it in an area where there could be no family wrestling matches or other rambunctious behavior. It had to be able to handle the heavy footed walk, as the needle on the phono would skip the grooves, damaging the fragile disk we called a record, and worse the needle. For sure, this was going to cause great stress on the buttock region of the perpetrator, or whoever happened to be handy.

You would carefully load the allowed number of disks, usually in the old days that would be 3. It had a really neat device that when it worked would actually force the old record off the shaft on to the platter area. The arm would swing out of the way. Then back again slowly lowering the arm into the groove and the music would begin.

Records were recorded single or in an album, and the sizes were 45 or 33. Not ever sure why they were monikered as such, but a long play 45 would cost a good deal of money. You had to handle it with extreme care, so as not to scratch it or leave it in the sun or other warm place that might slightly warp it.

But, what could you do with these devices when the newer technology came about?  The recording industry successfully sold millions of its disks, which were absolutely worthless in a car, and did not compare with that first magnetic tape recording, called a reel to reel.

For the consumer, what to do?  Many people from that time are still carting around (in life) a collection of long play disks. Maybe hoping one day that they might be able to off load them for a small fortune to someone on eBay. I mean, can you imagine an eBay?