Gray Audograph
Encyclopedia
Dictation
Dictation can refer to:*Dictation , when one person speaks while another person transcribes what is spoken.*A dictation machine, a device used to record speech for transcription....
format introduced in 1945. It recorded sound by pressing grooves into soft vinyl
Vinyl
A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group ,which are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group...
discs , like the competing, but incompatible, SoundScriber
SoundScriber
SoundScriber Disc was a dictation format introduced in 1945 by The SoundScriber Corp. . It recorded sound by "pressing" grooves into soft vinyl discs. Competing products were the Gray Audograph and Dictaphone DictaBelt....
. It was manufactured by the Gray Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The Audograph recorded on thin vinyl discs, recording from the inside to the outside, the opposite of conventional gramophone record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
s. Unlike conventional records, the disc was driven by a surface-mounted wheel. This meant that its recording and playback speed decreased toward the edge of the disc (like the Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and other digital formats), to keep a more constant linear velocity and to improve playing time.
Along with a DictaBelt
Dictabelt
The Dictabelt or Memobelt was a form of recording medium introduced by the American Dictaphone company in 1947. It used a type of "Write Once - Read Many" medium consisting of a thin, plastic belt 3.5" wide that was placed on a cylinder and spun like a tank tread. The needle would then move slowly...
sound recorder, an Audograph captured sounds recorded at the time of the John F. Kennedy assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
that were reviewed by the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations
United States House Select Committee on Assassinations
The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations ' was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the shooting of Governor George Wallace. The Committee investigated until 1978, and in 1979 issued its final...
.
In 1950, Gray began to make a variant of the Audograph for AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, known as the Peatrophone; however, due to what at the time were the high costs of renting and installing the machine, it served only a niche market.