Today is Vinyl Record Day. 10 things you might not know about vinyl records:
The origins of vinyl records can be traced back to 1857, when a French scientist named Leon Scott developed the “phonoautograph”, which used a vibrating diaphragm to record sound waves on Paper.
The first 12-inch vinyl record was of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 In C Minor by the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was released in 1931 but wasn’t a success as people were unwilling to fork out on new technology during the great depression.
Vinyl records as we know them date back to the late 1940s. Research into the format had started in the 1930s but stopped due to the second world war and resumed once the war ended. Columbia Records unveiled the LP at a press conference in the Waldorf Astoria on June 21, 1948.
At the same time, RCA Victor was marketing a system whereby longer works like symphonies were released on a series of 45 rpm records to be played on record players with a changing mechanism. RCA Victor claimed the new high-speed changer rendered the breaks so brief as to be inconsequential. For a time the two systems were in competition and this was called "The War of the Speeds".
The grooves on a vinyl record are less than a thousandth of an inch wide.
The friction generated as the needle passes over the groove means that the point where the needle touches the record can reach a temperature of 230 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
The full chemical name for vinyl is polyvinyl chloride or PVC. It belongs to the vinyl or ethenyl chemical group, whose chemical formula is very close to that of ethylene, which when diluted enough makes alcohol. Hence the German chemist Hermann Kolbe, when he went to name the newly discovered substance in 1851, chose a word derived from “Wine”.
The world’s largest vinyl record collection belongs to to Brazilian businessman José Roberto Alves Freitas. In 2016, his collection stood at over 6 million and counting.
The rarest and most expensive vinyl record is The Wu-Tang Clan’s 7th studio album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. It’s a double LP which comes in two hand-crafted nickel-silver boxes that took 3 months to make. The album itself was recorded in secret and took six years to make. Only one copy was ever produced and was sold at auction in 2015 for $2 million. Not only that, but there were strict conditions to the sale. The purchaser would not be allowed to make money from the album until 2103 although the tracks could be released for free. There there was also a clause that allowed any member of the Wu-Tang Clan or the actor Bill Murray to legally attempt a heist to steal the record.
In recent years, vinyl records have experienced a resurgence in popularity. More than 19 million vinyl records were sold in the United States during the first six months of 2021 (an increase of 108%). Perhaps this is because of the more natural sound quality, along with the tactile experience of handling a physical record.
Character birthday
Noah Garrett-Grayson, son of Sebastian Garrett and Pandora Grayson. Sebastian and Pandora had a relationship during their training to become Viper agents. When Pandora found out she was pregnant, she went into “hibernation” and was inactive while she had the baby. She later resumed her training and became an agent. By that time she and Sebastian had lost touch and she never told him he had a son. When Noah was ten, Pandora was killed during a mission. Her will stated that in that event, Sebastian would become Noah’s guardian. By then, Sebastian was married to Princess Helena of Galorvia. Noah was taken to their villa by his teacher, carrying a letter from Pandora explaining everything. While Helena was at first angry at having a child foisted on her, she and Noah eventually became close. It isn’t yet known whether Noah has inherited any genetic variant powers from his father.
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