The advantage of the sapphire ball stylus was its permanence. The vertically-cut Pathé discs normally required a special Pathé phonograph equipped with a sapphire ball stylus. Pathé was the first company to make master recordings in a different medium than the final commercial product.
14 inch discs were also made, as were very large 20 inch discs. Pathé discs were commonly produced in 10 inch, 10 1⁄ 2 inch, and 11 1⁄ 2 inch sizes. They originally started on the inside, near the center of the disc, spiraling out to the edge rather than the normal rim-start discs which were first produced in 1915. The discs rotated at 90 rpm, rather than 78 or 80. 005-inch-radius (0.13 mm) stylus to play them. They were also wider than other companies' records, requiring a special ball-shaped. The grooves were cut vertically into the discs, rather than across them. Even with this less eccentric material, the early Pathé discs were unlike any others. In October 1906 they started producing discs in the more usual manner with shellac. At first they sold single-sided discs with a recording in wax on top of a cement base. In 1905 the Pathé brothers entered the growing field of disc records. Pathé manufactured cylinder records until approximately 1914. The earliest Pathé offerings were phonograph cylinders. These incorporated elements of other brands.Soon after, they also started marketing pre-recorded cylinder records.īy 1896 the Pathé brothers had offices and recording studios not only in Paris, but also in London, Milan, and Moscow. Shortly thereafter, the brothers designed and sold their own phonographs. In the mid-1890s they began selling Edison and Columbia phonographs and accompanying cylinder records. The Pathé record business was founded by brothers Charles and Émile Pathé, then owners of a successful bistro in Paris. Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.