IN HISTORY

“IN HISTORY”: Sharp and design in history – A joint project with Sharp Museum commemorating its 40th anniversary.

Hello, I am Nakatani from Sharp Museum. This is a series where Sharp Museum staffs Fujiwara and Nakatani talk randomly about products and history of Sharp. I hope this will be an opportunity for you to find interest in Sharp’s history in some way.

This time I will introduce the 1938 front-loading type record player.

Passion in Its Wooden Cover

This is a wooden cabinet record player. The wooden cover gives a warm presence.

The simple gimmick of placing your fingers on the indents on both sides and pulling the lid forward, opening the wooden cover and revealing an imperious record player still seems to surprise the visitors, as they give an awe of recognition when seeing its movement. This front-loading style has been adopted to following CD/DVD/BD players as a standard format.

At that time, radios, gramophones and record players adopted wooden cabinets and were enjoyed as a furniture, entertaining people’s eyes as well as ears. Also a new resin bakelite started to be used, and the arm part reaching out horizontally like a person to place the needle on the record was make by a beautiful crimson bakelite, adding a different touch to the record player.

ONCE ONLY

What could this small package be?
Next to the record player, a small case about the size fitting in a person’s palm in displayed at our Museum.

The words ONCE ONLY can be found.
Can you imagine what these are for?
Included inside are needles attached to the arm. The needle traces the groove creating a vibration, leading to playing sound.

My image of a record needle was made of diamond, but it seems back in 1938 they used iron needles.
Unlike diamond, iron needles wear down, so it is probably written “ONCE ONLY” on the case to make sure the user exchanges the needle each time listening to the record.

Also on the record player there is a small tray to place the used iron needles.
After this record player was introduced, the confusion due to World War II caused supply shortage for a while, making it hard to obtain iron let alone diamond. Even still, it is said people at that time listened to records cutting bamboo to make needles.

Listening to the Illustrious Sounds

In 2020, Sharp Museum held a “Gramophone and Radio Exhibition” event with the support of Sharp retirees.
It was a luxurious time, listening to nostalgic and illustrious music from records brought in from the participants, while listening to their memories of their records as well.

This record player was released in 1938. How was people’s living at that time in Japan, when the world started to enter the War? We can only imagine from black and white photos. Since, at that time when there no televisions yet, it can be easily be imagined that listening to the radio or playing records must have been a luxurious pastime.
I felt I could feel their happiness imagining what it was like to carefully place the needle on the groove

That’s it for this time. Next we will introduce our Phono Radio.

[Sharp Museum commemorated it 40th anniversary on November 2021]

This is a series of Sharp Museum staffs Fujiwara and Nakatani talking randomly about products and history of Sharp. I hope this will be an opportunity for you to find interest in Sharp’s history in some way.