Deutsch
Talking Paper
Nina Borisova
Propaganda Paper
“Talking paper,” “Talking book” or “Singing book” were the expressions used in the 1930s to describe this precursor of the magnetophone. At the beginning of the 20th century, gramophone recordings were widely available. However, although the sound reproduction of gramophone discs had already reached a high level of perfection, there was still the question of extending the duration of the recordings and making them more affordable. At the beginning of the 1930s, publications appeared both in Russia and abroad on the possibility of making cheap devices that used rolls of paper (similar to rolls of film) for the reproduction of both music and speech sound recordings. The main inventor of talking paper in Russia is regarded as being B. P. Skvortsov.
In 1931, the People’s Commissariat for Posts and Telegraphs concluded a contract with the inventors for the construction of three versions of the apparatus: a stationary version for transmission stations of the People’s Commissariat, a lighter alternative for clubs and the small broadcasting stations of kolkhozes etc. and an inexpensive model for the masses as substitute for the gramophone. From an educational and propaganda point of view, the Soviet leadership attached great importance to the dissemination of talking paper throughout the country, as is also shown by the fact that in 1934 the Committee for Inventions accelerated production tests for five particularly important inventions, one of which was Skvortsov’s und Svetosarov’s talking paper. The inventors refused an award and made their invention a gift to the 17th Party Congress.
In 1937, responsibility for implementing the invention was transferred to the OGIZ (Association of State Publishers), which involved the development of industrial models of the apparatus and the production of a variety of phonograms of varying content reproduced by means of polygraphy. An order by the head of the OGIZ transferred responsibility for the organization of the talking paper laboratory to the Poligrafkniga workshops. At the same time, development began on a simple portable apparatus designed as a compact machine and including an amplifier and loudspeaker. The laboratory successfully developed two models, an add-on unit that could be used together with any radio receiver and a combined unit based on the 6H25 receiver that was particularly popular at the time. The printers were now working at full speed, and by the beginning of 1941, 150 rolls with a variety of contents had been produced. Each roll played for 50 minutes and cost one ruble. In comparison, a gramophone record cost three to five rubles and only played for a total of 20 minutes.
A special sales corner for talking paper and the corresponding rolls was set up in Moscow's TsUM (Central Universal Store) on Petrovka Street, and newspapers advertised the apparatus, which was to be offered for sale in the Universal Stores of the major cities from June 1941. But then came June, and with it the war. It is reliably known that once the war started the production of talking paper ceased completely. Even worse, during the evacuation, part of the technical documentation that was intended to assure the series production of the apparatus was lost in the bombing.
The phonogram rolls with their eight soundtracks made before the start of the war were subsequently used as till rolls as a means of saving paper, and indeed the former head of the laboratory received such an “invoice on soundtrack paper” in the 1950s as a receipt for his shopping in Moscow’s Gastronom on the Arbat food store.