Phono-Cut Record Company

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Phono-Cut Record Company made the first vertical-cut records in the United States, from 1910 to 1913. It was based in Boston and started as a subsidiary of the Boston Talking Machine Company. The vertical-cut method came from Pathé in France in 1905 and did not violate major patents, but it required special equipment with a sapphire stylus instead of a standard steel needle. Because of this extra hurdle, interest was limited, and in 1913 the company was sold to Morris Keen and became part of Keen-O-Phone.

Phono-Cut used a single numbering system starting at 5000; the highest known number is 5244, "Bake Dat Chicken Pie" by Collins and Harlan. Notable performers included Georges Grisez of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Henry Burr. Most vertical-cut records were scrapped during World War II, so Phono-Cut discs are rare and not highly valued by collectors. Still, Phono-Cut helped other labels—Rex (1912), Gennett, Paramount, Okeh, and Brunswick—start using vertical cut until the Victor and Columbia patents expired in 1921.