- Bettini, Gianni
- SUBJECT AREA: Recording[br]b. 1860 Novara, Italyd. 27 February 1938 San Remo, Italy[br]Italian developer of equipment for recording, duplicating and reproducing phonograph cylinders.[br]He was a nobleman and an Italian cavalry lieutenant and went to the USA, where he married Daisy Abbott (of Stamford, Connecticut). From 1888 he made amateur recordings of a wide circle of artistic acquaintances and improved the recording diaphragm attachment by the development of a "spider" (a mechanical link that attacks the diaphragm in several points on its surface, rather than in the centre only). From 1892, through the Bettini Phonograph Laboratories, he published recordings of operatic artists and selections, and this led to the development of improved duplicating techniques by the so-called pantographic method. In 1901 he sold his US company and moved to Paris, although he continued to publish both cylinders and discs. In 1908 Bettini made a venture into cinematography, without success.[br]BibliographyUS patent no. 409,003 (the "spider" device). US patent no. 488,381 (duplication).Further ReadingO.Read and W.L.Welch, 1959, From Tin Foil to Stereo, Indianapolis: Howard W.Sams, pp. 69–78.GB-N
Biographical history of technology. - Taylor & Francis e-Librar. Lance Day and Ian McNeil. 2005.
