SoundScriber

SoundScriber is a dictation machine introduced in 1945 by The SoundScriber Corp. (New Haven, Connecticut, United States). It records sound with a groove embossed into soft vinyl discs with a stylus. Similar competing recording technologies are the Gray Audograph and Dictaphone DictaBelt. The machine can record 15 minutes of dictation on each side of a thin (.01-inch) flexible 6-inch vinyl disc spinning at a rate of 33+1⁄3 RPM, at a density of 200 grooves per inch. The discs originally cost about 10 cents each. The machine has two tonearms: a recording arm driven by a worm gear that creates the groove with a diamond stylus, and a pickup arm with a sapphire stylus for playback. A foot-operated playback/pause—and-reverse switch is used for transcribing.

Unlike some other recording technologies of the time, the recording stylus creates the groove not by cutting the vinyl but by embossing (plastically deforming) the surface, leaving no waste plastic chips to get into the mechanical works.