Re: [Rollei] OT: Re: What did you do in the war? (long)

["Richard Knoppow" <dickburk >]

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Williams" <dwilli10  >
To: <rollei  
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 5:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Rollei] OT: Re: What did you do in the war?
(long)


> At 04:51 PM 5/19/2003 -0700, you wrote:
> >  Avery Fisher, the founder of the company who made these
is
> >the man the concert hall in N.Y. is named after.
> >   I have some Fisher tube stuff dating from the original
> >company. Like Marantz, Fisher sold out to interests which
> >very substantially lowered the quality of the products.
> >   As we know from Rollei trade marks have value
established
> >from association with an initially premium quality
product.
> >Later use often does not live up to the original. Fisher,
> >Marantz, MacIntosh, even JBL, were all more or less
cottage
> >industries when "HI-FI" started.
> >---
> >Richard Knoppow
> >Los Angeles, CA, USA
> >dickburk  
>
> As long as we are so off-topic, does anyone know who
invented the paper
> cone loudspeaker?
>
> Answer: Norman Ricker, at Western Electric, before he came
to the Physics
> Staff at the University of Oklahoma.  He used stiff
drafting paper, and his
> basic design is still used today.  He did it because the
music which was
> being piped to the labs at Western Electric had no high
tones, and he
> wanted something better.
>
> On another related, but still off-topic subject, some
recent email
> exchanges (within the past couple of years I think) seem
to indicate that
> Shure and Telex are family business in the more-or-less
traditional sense
> of the word.  [Telex makes those headsets you see the
coaching staff wear
> at the NFL games, some with a Motorola Logo, now some with
a Sprint logo.]
>
>
>
> Don Williams
> La Jolla, CA
>
>
   This loudspeaker was supplied by Western Electric as part
of its early broadcasting equipment. The cone is external
and operated by a pin link to a moving vane type movement.
  Previous loudspeakers were essentially a single headphone
coupled to a horn of the sort used on acoustical
phonographs.
  The moving coil cone speaker of the type well known today
was invented by Edward W. Kellogg of the General Electric
research lab. Because it requires an enclosure to work
properly it was not immediately popular. Kellogg also worked
on the sound on film system developed at GE. This was
aquired by RCA when the company was formed and marketed as
the RCA Photophone System. Teh existence of this system, a
rival of the Western Electric method, was one reason RCA
invested in RKO. Western Electric had the motion picture
market sewn up and RCA was looking for a way of exploiting
their system. Until about 1935 RKO was the only major studio
using RCA equipment. When the first WE licensing contracts
expired Warner Brothers chose RCA probably because they were
bitter about the way Western Electric / ATT killed Vitaphone
and because RCA had a better deal as far as royalties. Over
the next couple of decades RCA found its way into more and
more studios.
  Western Electric stuff sounded better but WE also wanted
an excessive footage royalty.
  Gee-Whiz, what obscure stuff I have stuffed into my brain.
No wonder I can't remember where I park my car.

- ---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk  

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