Flexible Record Production Process

Report, Technical

Accession Number: 2006.2.1a

Scope & Content: Mimeographed copy of a typewritten APH report "Flexible Record Production Process: A Working Prototype," 29 pages. On title page: "Pursuant to Library of Congress Agreement, contract LC 948." Report includes a fold-out drawing of the production machine. Photographs used as illustrations in the report are separately cataloged (see 2006.2.1b-p). There are also 75 original technical drawings, in pencil and undated, of the production system; and a mimeographed copy of an APH 2-page progress report, "Flexible Disc Record Process and Prototype of the Equipment for Production," dated July 26, 1972. A pressed flexible disc of "Harvest Years/Retirement Living," August 1972, that may have been an attachment to the July 26 report, is separately cataloged (see 2006.2.9); and an additional photograph, probably taken circa 1972 but not used in the technical report, is separately cataloged (see 2006.2.2).

Creator: American Printing House for the Blind

Interview Date: / /

Collection: APH Archives / RG 18: Maintenance

Credit Line: APH Archives, 2006.2

Administrative History: In 1972, the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) began using a completely-automated production process, designed and made by the company, to produce recorded magazines on flexible phonograph discs. The work was done in cooperation with the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, which was planning to phase-out hard vinyl recordings of its talking books and magazines.

Subjects: Machine design Manufacturing processes Presses Prototypes Sound recording and reproducing

Rights: Contact Callahan Museum staff regarding reproduction.