Editing Pantograph (section)

=== Acoustic cylinder duplication ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=July 2018}}

One advantage of [[phonograph]] and gramophone discs over cylinders in the 1890s&mdash;before electronic amplification was available—was that large numbers of discs could be stamped quickly and cheaply. In 1890, the only ways of manufacturing copies of a master cylinder were to mold the cylinders (which was slow and, early on, produced very poor copies), or to acoustically copy the sound by placing the horns of two phonographs together or to hook the two together with a rubber tube (one phonograph recording and the other playing the cylinder back). Instead of copying a master cylinder, the other alternative was to record a performance to multiple gramophones simultaneously,  over and over again, making each cylinder a master copy. [[Thomas Edison|Edison]], [[Gianni Bettini|Bettini]], [[Leon Douglass]] and others solved this problem (partly) by mechanically linking a cutting stylus and a playback stylus together and copying the "hill-and-dale" grooves of the cylinder mechanically. When molding improved somewhat, molded cylinders were used as pantograph masters. This was employed by Edison and [[Columbia Records|Columbia]] in 1898, and was used until about January 1902 (Columbia brown waxes after this were molded). Some companies like the [[United States Phonograph Company]] of [[Newark, New Jersey]], supplied cylinder masters for smaller companies so that they could duplicate them, sometimes pantographically. Pantographs could turn out about 30 records per day and produce up to about 150 records per master. In theory, pantograph masters could be used for 200 or 300 duplicates if the master and the duplicate were running in reverse and the record would be duplicated in reverse. This, in theory, could extend the usability of a pantograph master by using the unworn/lesser worn part of the recording for duplication. [[Pathé]] employed this system with mastering their vertically cut records until 1923; a {{convert|5|in|mm|adj=mid|-diameter}}, {{convert|4|or|6|in|mm|adj=mid|-long}} master cylinder, rotating at a high speed, would be recorded on. This was done as the resulting cylinder was considerably loud and of very high fidelity. Then, the cylinder would be placed on the mandrel of a duplicating pantograph that would be played with a stylus on the end of a lever, which would transfer the sound to a wax disc master, which would be electroplated and be used to stamp copies out. This system resulted in some fidelity reduction and rumble, but relatively high quality sound. [[Edison Disc Record|Edison Diamond Disc Records]] were made by recording ''directly'' onto the wax master disc.