The Gray Audograph was a

dictation machine A dictation machine is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorder. The name "Dictaphone" is a trademark of the company of the same n ...

format introduced in 1945. It recorded sound by pressing grooves into soft

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

discs, like the competing, but incompatible,

SoundScriber SoundScriber is a dictation machine introduced in 1945 by The SoundScriber Corp. (New Haven). It records sound with a groove embossed into soft vinyl discs with a stylus. by Soundscriber's chief engineer, has technical details of the machines ...

. It was manufactured by the Gray Manufacturing Company of

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The Audograph recorded on thin vinyl discs, recording from the inside to the outside, the opposite of conventional

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

s. Unlike conventional records, the disc was driven by a surface-mounted wheel. This meant that its recording and playback speed decreased toward the edge of the disc (like the

Compact Disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

and other digital formats), to keep a more constant linear velocity and to improve playing time. Along with a

Dictabelt The Dictabelt, in early years and much less commonly also called a Memobelt, is an analog audio recording medium commercially introduced by the American Dictaphone company in 1947. Having been intended for recording dictation and other speech fo ...

sound recorder, an Audograph captured sounds recorded at the time of the

John F. Kennedy assassination John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was Assassination, assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Time Zone, CST in Dallas, Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Deale ...

that were reviewed by the

United States House Select Committee on Assassinations The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The HSCA completed its i ...

. In 1950, Gray began to make a variant of the Audograph for

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

, known as the Peatrophone; however, due to what at the time were the high costs of renting and installing the machine, it served only a niche market.

References

External links

Restoring Gray Audograph recordings

Image of Audograph catalog
Audiovisual introductions in 1945 Audio storage 1945 in technology Products introduced in 1945 {{Product-stub