Eldridge Johnson
November 12th in Gennett History, 1904: Eldridge Johnson filed a ‘divisional (patent) application’ that included ‘a tablet having a sound groove of even depth elliptical in cross-section, widest at the mouth of the groove and gradually diminishing toward the bottom thereof.’ Gennett’s disregard of this patent claim caused the Victor Talking Machine Co v. Starr Piano lawsuit that would go all the way to the Supreme Court. Starr’s victory put lateral cut 78 RPMs into the public domain and was the tipping point in both the birth of ‘independent labels” and the recording of race and hillbilly music.
Eldridge Johnson Provisional Patent
Gennett Records Discography 