Hi all,

I'm just wondering if anyone knows anything about old 80rpm records (particularly age and value)? I picked up an old Columbia "Magic Notes" 80rpm, which was made in Australia. Both recordings on it are church bells from two London churches - "Bow Bells - Queens" and "Bow Bells - Whittington Chimes".

Chris

I've never heard of an 80rpm record although I would imagine that it would be easy enough to play one on early turntables as they had variable speed control rather than the four set speeds of the turntables of the 1960s and beyond.

As Brad said, in the days of clockwork or windup gramophones, there was no fixed standard for recording speeds. The turntable rotation speed was controlled by a mechanical governor that could be adjusted over a fairly wide range from about 60 to over 100rpm, as I recall.

My first entry into vintage sound equipment was when I "analysed" my great-aunt's wind-up turntable into its component parts, mostly a very hard brass alloy, and totally failed to put it back together (aged 10). It had a powerful smell of whale oil, which was the machine lubricant of the 1920s when it was made.

Maven

Edison Diamond discs are 80 rpm but you would know if you had one as they are very thick and heavy. They have hill and dale cut grooves so won't sound so great on a regular pickup. The speed of records and indeed the equalisation curve wasn't standardised for many years and speeds ranged widely even 100+ rpm on some early records.

80 RPM? Wow.

My old Labcraft truntable with it's variable speed device would be able to play them.