“The Matter of a Victrola” 1914

I am old enough that I have lost track of MP3s and Bluetooth (Blueteeth?) and the constant cascade of new technologies for playing back sound.  At the risk of sounding like a crotchety old man, I was born in the era of phonograph records, had a hasty introduction to eight track tapes, a longer flirtation with cassette tapes, and settled down with compact discs.  I can’t really say whether each step was an improvement over the last, and will not argue the topic.  Changing recording technology goes back many more years. 

In December of 1914,  Otterbein trustee G. A. Lambert received a letter from Otterbein president Walter Clippinger.  The president needed advice on buying a victrola.  In part he wrote:

The matter of a victrola for our Conservatory is up again.  We really need one, and need it badly. . . . Our Conservatory people think a machine worth about $125 with good mechanical arrangements, but simple oak cabinet will meet their requirements. . . .

Before you think, “Wow – what a bargain,” remember to multiply that figure by at least ten to account for more than a century of inflation. 

But in addition to the cost, there was the issue, or perhaps annoyance, of a Mr. Fisher , the phonograph salesman.  Craftily, he made a donation to Otterbein’s endowment fund, giving him the right to be heard by the president and the Board of Trustees.  President Clippinger naturally asked his advice, as both a donor and someone who knew about talking machines:

Several years ago he [Fisher] gave me some encouragement, but advised that we wait a little while until the Edison machine could be developed more perfectly.  I think that improvement has been made since then.[i]

So from the sound of it, the president was ready to buy an Edison.  Yes, the phonograph invented by and manufactured by Thomas Edison, the Ohio boy whose reputation as an inventor had spread far and wide.  The Edison Company started producing “diamond disc” records (instead of cylinders) in 1912.  Two years later, the new product caught the eye of Walter Clippinger.  Edison kept offering cylinders for a few years, but Clippinger was (probably) interested in the newer format.

One of the reasons Edison switched from cylinders to discs was to keep ahead of competition from an upstart New Jersey competitor calling itself The Victor Talking Machine Company.  This company and its standard phonograph, the Victrola, were selling their product so fast, that Edison was falling behind.  It has been said that when a product is so popular that it becomes a common noun, it is becoming a part of our civilization.  This explains why Clippinger, in his letter to Lambert, used the term “victrola” for what was actually an Edison.

I have not yet found a receipt from the Edison Company.  There may be one in the thousands of pages in the Otterbein Archives.  President Clippinger knew his own mind and what he wanted for Otterbein.  Living in a capitalist country however, he could not foresee that Victor would survive to the present day, while Edison would stop producing records in 1929.

[i] Walter G. Clippinger to G. A, Lambert, December 9, 1914.  Otterbein University Archives.

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