The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #60518 Message #969565
Posted By: Mark Cohen
20-Jun-03 - 05:24 AM
Thread Name: Old 78 rpm
Subject: RE: Old 78 rpm
Thread creep alert: Does anybody know why phonograph speeds were standardized at 78, 45, 33 1/3, and 16 RPM? I've always wondered if there's a better answer than, "because that's how they did it." Obviously, 33 1/3 is one-third of 100 (so....?), and 16 (used mostly for spoken recordings, I believe, like talking books) is about half of that. But that doesn't seem to be an answer.