Laser recording in 1925? Brunswick/GE "Light Ray" Process

Does anyone have any information on this apparently short-lived method of recording? Developed by Brunswick and General Electric to supposedly compete with Victor's "Orthophonic" electrical recording process.

 

Some of the earlier "Light Ray" records are distorted, but they improved it a bit, later on.

 

Has there ever been a compilation or collection of historical recordings based on the different techniques used to make early recordings?

 

Thanks for the link Steve, very informative!

 

...and the Recording Industry wisely learned, to never "push" their recordings into distortion ever again...!

 

Art Shifrin snet me this information about the process:

"Their ‘light ray recording process was a variation of the “Pallophotophone” (recorder of dancing light) that was developed by Dr. Charles Hoxie of the G.E. Labs. The device was a photo-acoustic audio recorder whose medium was 35mm film and a precursor of RCA’s Photophone. It used a recording horn, NOT a microphone. Instead of being attached to a cutting stylus, the diaphragm at the narrow end was connected to a mirror.
The mirror reflected light from a bulb of constant brightness. When the mirror undulated, a variable area oscilloscopic (did I just coin a term?) image was exposed on the film. Once developed, the film was played back positioned between a constant source of light and a photocell. The photocell drove an electronic amplifier.



I’ve found references of G.E’s radio station WGY (Schenectady) using it to prerecord at least two broadcasts. The earlier was on a Christmas Eve, 1922. Two short Christmas greetings were individually done, by Vice-President Calvin Coolidge & the other, I think by General John Pershing. A much more ambitious use was the rebroadcast of a complete address by President Coolidge in early 1925. I have a dubbed sample of the Coolidge Christmas recording. It was played back 25 years later on an episode of G.E.’s “Science Forum”, which of course was aired by WGY. The 16” acetate was very noisy. It’s on the ‘museum’ section of my website, which is www.shifrin.net. You can also see Dr. Hoxie and the system there.



What G.E. licensed to Brunswick was a morphed Pallophotophone. Instead of the photocell feeding an amp., it drove an electro-mechanical cutter head. Primarily due to the recording horn, the system was rife with resonances and was noticeably sonically inferior to the Western Electric method. As such, they could’ve beat Marsh Labs and Western Electric in the phonograph technology race by about two and three years respectively. This system was evidently used through to the end of Warner Brothers’ ownership (partial? complete?) of the company. After that (October 1931) they were a Western Electric licensee.



Notice the use of Brunswick records, phonographs and radios in earlier Warner sound films, such as the “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” sequence when Jimmy Cagney’s character falls dead into his mother’s front door at the end of “Public Enemy” (1931). It’s a business irony that in their films they depicted G.E. phonograph technology (in this film’s case with an inappropriate older acoustic style label) in a sound film recorded under Western Electric license.



A neat possibility that could’ve occurred was that Brunswick could’ve mastered on 35mm film, which then could have been edited and subsequently used to make wax disk masters. I don’t know if this possibility occurred to them and if so, if it was ever done.



G.E., Westinghouse, RCA & AT&T created an electronics ‘patents pool’ that gave each participant ‘dipping rights’ into the others’ patents. Once in effect a preamplified microphone replaced the horn: the genesis of RCA – Photophone. The ‘pool’ was subsequently busted up by ‘da Feds’."

 

Worth noting is that Toscanini, impressed with the electrical amplification of bird calls through a Brunswick Panatrope during a performance of (if memory serves) Respighi's "The Birds," signed with Brunswick to make his sole American recordings for anyone other than Victor shortly thereafter. The alliance was short lived; after two 78 RPM sides, he returned to the Victor fold.

Can anybody confirm that Polydor, which had an alliance with Brunswick, also used the light ray system for a while? Early electric Polydor classical recordings, at least, tend to be quite congested and to have a rather peculiar balance.

 

When I get home, i am going to look for the Popular Science article I have mentions the Bruswick Photoelectric system, from the 20s. I have a few of the early electrical Bruswicks, and they do sound distorted.

 

Examples?

 

It's amazing how you can open this forum and all of a sudden stumble upon a thread centered around a recording technology you probably never heard of and that was discontinued 90 years ago. Things like this show the best sides of the internet and why it's important to keep sharing knowledge via forums and such.

I can't contribute to the topic itself, just wanted to speak out my respect and, yes, grate for the fact this thread just popped up on the front page because of a reopening.

 

Here's a very, very obvious example of the Brunswick Light-Ray system when it came to a black jazz band. Paraphrasing our host in another thread, it might have been okay for a string quartet or something, but it was a different story when bands played LOUD, like this one.
It's distorted, dynamically constricted, and still going in the high mids where most 1926 electric recordings fell off quickly. But I love it. Listen to Louis absolutely tearing it up here, this was his "day job" band at this time in 1926.

 

I can't be certain about this one - it's April '27, and Ellington recordings from that month were still being billed as "Light Ray" on record labels. It sounds light-rayish to me on the edges of the trumpet notes, but in this situation the band is only a four piece, and obviously playing with much less volume than a theater big band.
Enjoy Louis moonlighting again, this time a fortnight before the Hot Seven recordings.

 

I assume Toscanini's two Brunswick recordings (Nocturne & Scherzo from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream) were made with the Light Ray process?

 

According to grammophon-platen.de, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft/Polydor did license the Brunswick/GE Light Ray Process.

 

According to the liners of the Naxos disc I’ve got these on, yes.
BEETHOVEN:Symphony No. 5 / MENDELSSOHN: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Toscanini) (1926, 1929, 1931)

 

A fascinating subject! I’ve long been curious about optical recording methods used on films.

 

As far as I know, yes. I don't think Brunswick had a license to record with the Western Electric system at that time.