Editing Format war (section)

==1920s==
*[[Gramophone record]] formats: lateral versus vertical "hill-and-dale" groove cutting. When Edison introduced his "[[Diamond Disc]]" (played with a diamond stylus instead of a steel needle) record in 1912, it was cut "hill-and-dale", meaning that the groove was modulated along its vertical axis, as it had been on all cylinders—unlike other manufacturers' discs, which were cut laterally, meaning that their grooves were of constant depth and modulated along the horizontal axis. Machines designed to play lateral-cut discs could not play vertical-cut ones and vice versa. [[Pathé Records]] also adopted the hill-and-dale format for their discs, first issued in 1906, but they used a very wide, shallow groove, played with a small sapphire ball, which was incompatible with Edison products. In 1929 Thomas Edison quit the record industry, ceasing all production of both discs and cylinders. Pathé had been making a transition to the lateral format during the 1920s and in 1932 decisively abandoned the vertical format. There was no standard speed for all disc records until 78&nbsp;rpm was settled on during the latter half of the 1920s, although because most turntables could be adjusted to run at a fairly wide range of speeds that did not really constitute a format war. Some [[Berliner Gramophone]] discs played at about 60&nbsp;rpm. Some of Pathé's largest discs, which were 50&nbsp;cm (nearly 20&nbsp;inches) in diameter, played at 120&nbsp;rpm. Diamond Discs were 80&nbsp;rpm. Those makers aside, speeds in the mid-70s were more usual.

:In addition, there were several more minor "format wars" between the various brands using various speeds ranging from 72 to 96 rpm, as well as needle or stylus radii varying from {{convert|0.0018|to|0.004|in}}{{snd}} the current {{convert|0.003|in|adj=on}} radius needle or stylus is a compromise as no company actually used this size. The most common sizes were {{convert|0.0028|in}}, used by Columbia, and {{convert|0.0032|in}}, used by HMV/Victor.<ref>[http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/history/p20_4_6.html Guide to playing 78s]</ref>