Picture Discs

Picture discs debuted in the early 1930s, when various materials were used experimentally as gimmicks or for advertising. These early picture discs were simply a sheet of thin vinyl film which was placed over a thick paper print and then pressed with the grooves and had very poor sound quality.

Adolf Hitler even released a 7" picture disc of this type with one of his speeches. Known as the Patria (Fatherland) picture disc, the obverse bears an image of Hitler giving a speech and has a recording of both a speech by Hitler and also Party Member Hans Hinkel. The reverse bears a hand holding a swastika flag and the Carl Woitschach (1933 — Telefunken A 1431) recording In Dem Kampf um die Heimat - Faschistenmarsch.

Invented in the forties by Tom Saffady, Vogue Records (picture discs) were manufactured in Detroit, Michigan, at Sav-Way Industries during 1946 and 1947 and sold for 50 to 75 cents each. With 74 titles featuring artists like Lulu Belle, The Charlie Shavers Quintet, and Patsy Montana they were 10" in diameter and made of an aluminum platter covered in vinyl.

Following introduction of colored vinyl, picture discs started to appear in the 1970s. The first serious pictures discs (with acceptable but still inferior sound quality) were developed by Metronome Records GmbH (a subsidiary of Polydor Records). These new picture discs were made by creating a five layer lamination consisting of a core of black vinyl with kiln dried paper decals on either side and then outer skins of clear vinyl film (manufactured by 3M) on the outsides. In manufacture, one layer of the clear film was first placed on the bed of the press on top of the stamper, then a "puck" of hot black vinyl from the extruder was placed on top of that. Finally the top print and vinyl film layer was added (held by a retracting pin in the upper profile usually employed to retain the upper paper label) and the press closed. Problems with poor vinyl flow caused by the paper texture and air released from the paper (that had not been removed in the kiln drying process) plagued the process. One of the first rock picture discs was British progressive rock band Curved Air's first album, Air Conditioning.

On some picture discs, the images used were meant to create an optical illusion while the record was rotating on the turntable (as in the B side of Curved Air's Air Conditioning), while others used the visual effect to add to the music — for example, the 1979 picture disc of Fischer-Z's The Worker featured a train which endlessly commuted around the turntable, reinforcing the song's message. Later picture discs included liquid light show style fluids between the vinyl, Rowlux 3D effect film, defraction rainbow film, metal flake, (examples can be found in the lenticular printing section of Wikipedia) pressure sensitive liquid crystals that changed color when the record was picked up, a real holographic record (the first ever), and even a real "live album." Made as a demonstration for Stevie Wonder's "Journey through the Secret Life of Plants", it featured a layer of blotting paper between the clear vinyl layers that contained Alfalfa seeds. A tag of the blotting paper protruded below the record, and resting the disc on a glass of water with the paper in the water allowed the seeds to germinate and grow inside the record. When the prototype was taken through customs in Canada it was seized by the Department of Agriculture, making it not only the only real live album but the only record ever banned by the Department of Agriculture (alfalfa being a prohibited import).