Ray Bay <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Stereo was invented in 1954 by the Fletcher boys...  but the first
>recording equipment generally available to put it on vinyl in a commercial
>way was in 1959...  there were stereo recordings and recording systems
>being tested in 1957 in preparation for the already planned commercial
>development...

Stereo recording was patented in 1931 by Alan Dower Blumlein (1903-42)
at EMI Hayes and established the standard for cutting stereophonic sound
signals into a single groove.  He became a major figure at EMI's Central
Research Laboratories and was killed in an aviation accident whilst testing
radar equipment.  In his short life he produced 128 patents (cf.  "Since
Records Began" by Peter Martland, publ.1997).

Stereo tape recording was well under way at Abbey Road by 1955 and a
magnificent early example can be found in Malko's recording of Prokofiev's
1st & 7th Symphonies (& 3 Oranges) with the Philharmonia.  My copy is on
Classics for Pleasure.

It is my impression that EMI led Decca in stereo technology at this time
making it unlikely that Culshaw recorded in stereo at Bayreuth in 1955.

The first stereo LPs appeared in UK, on Decca, in the autumn of 1958; in
the USA some months before.

John G. Deacon
Home page: www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon