Chrysler's Highway Hi-Fi

[Kragen]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 06:48:46 -0600 (CST)
From: Richard Kadrey <kadrey@sirius.com>
To: Dead Media List <dead-media@fringeware.com>

Dead Media Working Note 41.1

Dead medium: Chrysler's Highway Hi-Fi, pt. one

From: kadrey@well.com (Richard Kadrey)

Sources: http://ac.acusd.edu/History/recording/chryslerhifi.html; 
Maverick Inventor by Dr. Peter Goldmark; 1973; published by Peter C. 
Goldmark and Lee Edson; chapter nine (page numbers unknown)

Chrysler's Highway Hi-Fi

3The Highway Hi-Fi could be found in Chrysler automobiles from 1956 to 
1959. It was developed by Peter Goldmark and
manufactured by CBS Electronics with special 16-2/3 rpm records from 
Columbia. Goldmark's account of his invention is a chapter in his 1973 
book Maverick Inventor, and the excerpt How the Highway HiFi Was 
Invented is on the comprehensive Imperial Home Page with pictures and 
factory literature and a list of record titles on the 1956 to 1959 Made 
by Columbia page. Another version that played 45 rpm records was 
manufactured from 1960 to 1961 by RCA. 

3After developing the LP microgroove in 1948, Goldmark made an 
ultramicrogroove record with over 1000 grooves per inch. Slowed to half 
the speed of the 33-1/3 LP, a 7-inch ultramicrogroove record could play 
for an hour. Goldmark drove a Chrysler car and after a demonstration to 
Chrysler officials it was decided to call it the Highway Hi-Fi9 for the 
1956 models. According to the official Chrysler press release of 
September 12, 1955, Highway Hi- Fi plays through the speaker of the car 
radio and uses the radio's amplifier system. The turntable for playing 
records, built for Chrysler by CBS-Columbia, is located in a shock-proof 
case mounted just below the center of the instrument panel. A tone arm, 
including sapphire stylus and ceramic pick up, plus storage space for 
six long-play records make up the unit.2


**********************************

This is an excerpt from chapter nine of the book Maverick Inventor9 by 
Dr. Peter Goldmark:


INVENTING IN SUBURBIA

3Dad,9 Peter suddenly blurted out. Why don't they have adventure 
stories on the radio? Something you can put on yourself. This stuff can 
be so boring.9

3Well, why not? How many times has one felt the agonizing boredom on 
long trips, the irritating fights between brother and sister, as young 
minds and bodies start to feel cramped? I suppose I could have dropped 
the idea and gone on to the things that were of more immediate concern 
at CBS, but I kept thinking of my son's question. 

3When I got back to work, I started to wonder how much information one 
can put on a small record for use in a car without a changer. The 
answer, it turned out, is easy to figure. To give us forty-five minutes 
of playing time on a side, as much content as both sides of an LP, and 
to give us a record small enough to fit with its mechanism inside the 
glove compartment, the record would have to be seven inches in diameter 
and would have to revolve at 16 2/3 rpm, one-half of the LP speed. In 
addition it required almost three times the number of grooves per inch 
as did the LP. 

3I talked it over with my colleagues. I never know whether they're 
affected by my enthusiasm or by the idea itself. I generally try to 
restrain the excitement that surges through me so that my associates 
won't feel they are being dominated by my ideas, which I must admit 
sometimes may seem to go far beyond immediate realizations. In any case 
they liked the notion of playing records in an automobile, and they 
seemed to mean it.

3So we got to work immediately. Our earlier experience with the LP stood 
us in good stead, and in just six months we developed the narrowest 
microgroove in the business, the ultramicrogroove. It was one-third the 
width of a human hair. The fidelity was superb. 

3It was time to show it to Stanton. I told him I had a gift for him and 
installed a custom-designed player in the glove compartment of his jet-
black Thunderbird. He loved it. I thought you'd given up the idea,9 he 
said. Then he added, I'm glad you didn't.9 

3I thought that the ultramicrogroove record turntable might not only 
work in an auto, but also might become a standard in the record business 
if radio stations went into broadcasting pop music, which generally 
comprises short numbers. Remembering the earlier interest of Murphy and 
others at CBS in the seven-inch record, I proposed it to management. 
Paley didn't think much of this market; in fact, he didn't think pop 
music was a market at all. He also felt that record players installed in 
cars might cause drivers to turn off the radio to listen to records, and 
thus CBS would lose listeners. I must confess that I didn't think the 
world would suffer if car drivers occasionally turned off The Shadow and 
listened to Debussy. 

3Here is another case where I couldn't allow my enthusiasm to be 
dampened by management's negativism to new ideas. I decided to go ahead 
on my own and to see how far I could get with the automobile 
installation. Since I was then driving a Chrysler, I thought the 
Chrysler Corporation might be interested in the device, and got in touch 
with a man named Kent, who was the company's chief electrical engineer.

3A ruddy-faced, middle-aged man who was then pioneering air conditioning 
in automobiles, Kent was interested in new ideas and invited me to 
Detroit. When I arrived, I told him I had something in my car that he 
just had to see. Curious, he agreed to go with me to the parking lot. 
Inside the car, I turned on a switch. The music came pouring out of the 
loudspeaker of the car radio, clear, beautiful, and static-free.

3Kent was startled. I opened the compartment and showed him the setup. 
He looked at the strange, homemade tone arm on the player and shook his 
head. It's fine while you're parked,9 he said. But what about driving 
on the road?9 You drive,9 I said, offering him the keys.

3He slipped behind the wheel, put the car in drive, and slid down the 
highway. The music continued to pour out faithfully. Then he turned into 
a lot and stopped. Do you mind?9 be asked, pointing to a field ahead.

3I looked at a spot of land that must have been created out of an auto 
engineer's nightmare. There were cobblestones, potholes, washboard earth 
formations, trestles, and almost any other strange irregularity one 
could find. This was Chrysler's testing ground, he told me, where new 
models were jolted up before they were sent to distributors. My heart 
sank. I consoled myself with the thought that if the machine is properly 
balanced, nothing can throw it off. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but 
worry.

3Kent shot the car over the trestles, but there was not even a waver in 
the sound. He ran over cobbles, skidded past wash-boards, climbed up and 
down small, jutting mounds. Still the music came forth, loud and 
undisturbed. Kent was impressed and immediately said he would 
demonstrate the set to the president of Chrysler. One thing I learned 
later was that each set of cobblestones had its own frequency of 
vibration when in contact with the moving car, so I later had to design 
a filter that worked for more possibilities of vibration than I had ever 
thought of.

3Several days later we went down to the Chrysler garage, where several 
people joined us. We all piled into one of the executive cars, which had 
been outfitted with one of my sets. Lynn Townsend, who later became 
president of the auto company, sat in back with me while the then 
president of Chrysler drove. The executives gave the tone arm the same 
test as before-over cobblestones, around curves, over washboard roads, 
slowing down, speeding up, even emergency stops. The jolts were 
incredible. But so was the record player. Nothing could stop it from 
carrying out its appointed mission. I, on the other hand, was getting 
sick.

3With music filling the air, the president wheeled the car into the 
company garage. Townsend turned to me and said, I must have it for the 
Chrysler.9 Everybody else agreed and chanted, Yes, we must have it.9 2