Because the vertical recording method required an absolutely flat surface, the manufacture of Edison discs was quite involved. They were made up of a core of compressed wood flour (later China clay) with a layer of “Condensite” (a phenolic resin varnish) bonded to the surface on which the recording was engraved. While this produced a very quiet recording, moisture often caused this bonded layer to separate or develop raised “lamination cracks” rendering the recording useless. After mid-1916, this layer of resin varnish was applied directly onto the core. While it eliminated the peeling and cracking, it resulted in considerably higher surface noise that took Edison another four or five years to bring under control., The Edison Diamond Disc is unlike nearly every other record ever made. About a quarter-inch thick, 10” in diameter, and weighing close to one pound each, they revolve at 80 rpm and were recorded using the vertical “hill and dale” method in which the bottom of the groove rose and fell, producing the vibrations on the diaphragm to create , The Edison Disc Recordings Access Initiative, a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities is now being wrapped up by the library’s team of editors and digitizng staff. Over the past two years, editors have added a complete discography of Thomas Edison’s disc recordings (1910-1929) to DAHR, documenting more than 14,000 .