[Jukebox-list] Need help with old record info

[Jay Hennigan]

norm wrote:
> Found an old record and would like to know more about it . It is the size of a 45 but it plays at 78 . It says on it :Recordio Disc ,Wilcox-Gay Corporation.It is like vinyl put on to an aluminum disc .One side is a guy playing harmonica and the other side is people singing Bye Bye Black Bird . I assume it was actually cut in a studio . Anyone have an idea when this might have been made ,30's,40's ? It would be cool to know a bit of history behind this .Thanks  Norm

And there is probably a hole in it offset from the spindle hole.

Wilcox-Gay made home disk-cutting machines in the 1940s and 1950s. 
These had two tonearms, one for recording and one for playback.  They 
could record from a microphone or line source.  Some had a built-in 
radio and you could make recordings of radio broadcasts.

The disks are a lacquer-covered aluminum.  The recording arm had a 
stylus that would cut grooves in the lacquer.  It was motor-driven to 
make the spiral groove and had an electromagnetic head unit similar to a 
  magnetic earphone that would cause the stylus to vibrate in sync with 
the audio being recorded.

This was during the time before tape recorders were practical for home 
use.  There were also wire recorders that worked similar to tape 
recorders but used spools of very thin magnetic wire instead of tape.

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