EXPERT STYLUS & CARTRIDGE CO.

Research Developments

In 1967 the demand for an alternative to sapphire styli for the playing of vinyl led Wyndham Hodgson, our senior engineer with a knowledge of low vacuum physics and crystallographic structures to believe it was possible to bond diamond to steel. The company bought an Edwards ½ pound vacuum furnace and with help from a company named Johnston Matthey, who supplied a silver copper eutectic brazing wire, found after many hours of research he was successful in bonding diamond to steel. The company went on to manufacture the very first cheap commercial diamond styli with conical radii measuring .0005” .0006” .0007” for stereo/LP and .0025” for 78rpm shellac records. Following the development, a demand for a low mass non magnetic diamond by the Decca Company for their newly developed Decca London range of cartridges was needed. With further research, we produced the styli from selected natural dodecahedron diamonds supplying 100 each per month with conical radii of .0006/.0007” and ellipticals with a frontal radius of .0006/7” and tracing radii .0002”. During the heyday of vinyl our diamonds were used in quality control departments of major record companies including EMI and Decca. Our very own BBC used a range of diamonds for broadcast purposes.