1906 – 1932
Pathé
Vertical cut, sapphire ball, and a needle that started at the centre
Pathé Frères · Paris
The house
Charles and Émile Pathé built the largest recording operation in continental Europe, and did it their own way. Pathé discs were vertical-cut and played with a polished sapphire ball rather than a steel needle, and on the earlier issues the needle started at the centre of the disc and tracked outwards.
Pathé recorded on master cylinders and then transferred to disc, which meant one session could be issued in any format and at any size, up to enormous twenty-inch discs. Its catalogue is the best surviving record of French popular song, opera and military music of the period.
From 1920 the company issued the lateral-cut Pathé Actuelle line so that its records would play on ordinary machines, and the vertical discs were gradually retired.
What it sounds like
Vertical cutting gives a distinctive tone: strong low end, gentle treble, and low distortion when properly transferred. Because the sapphire ball needs a wide groove, playback with the wrong stylus damages the disc — good transfers matter more here than anywhere.
On the shelf
Pulling sleeves…