Music: New Needle

Ever since people began using phonographs for pleasure they have found their pleasure marred by the continual necessity of changing needles. Sound engineers have long sought the solution to this annoyance: a needle that would last indefinitely without wearing out phonograph records. Seeking the ideal substance for such a permanent needle, the late Thomas Alva Edison hit upon sapphire,† used it for the needles of his oldfashioned wax-cylinder talking machines as early as 1888. But when modern hard-surfaced records were developed, the sapphire needle fell into discard for musical purposes: it could not be ground and polished accurately enough to reproduce the subtleties caught by modern recording machines. Most popular needles since then have been made of steel and chromium. But for absolutely clear results, steel and chromium needles had to be changed after a few records.

Last year two New Jersey inventors, Lowell and Robert Walcott, remembered Edison’s original idea, set to work again on a sapphire needle. Modern methods of grinding and polishing enabled them to improve on Edison’s original. Their result, the Walco needle (price: $2 each) was put on sale four months ago by Musicraft Records, Inc. Last week Musicraft reported that sales of the new needle had doubled in the past three months, that orders were pouring in from Europe to the Malay Peninsula. Claims for the Walco needle are that: 1) it can play 2,000 records before showing serious signs of wear, 2) it is easier on record surfaces than even fibre or wood, 3) it reproduces the minutiae of sound as faithfully as steel.

†Second hardest gem known. Hardest: the diamond.