On the other hand, when we made the much-publicized recording of "Petrouchka" [sic] with Ernest Ansermet for Decca at the end of the war, electrical power was used to spin the turntable and it turned out that there had been variations in current (very common at that time) causing the speed and consequently the pitch to vary from record to record. The entire set had to be made again. One disc would be cut with a diamond stylus and then played back to check the balance and so on. Unfortunately, after being played back it was of no further use and had to be sent to be melted down so the process would be repeated until they felt they might print from the next one. It used to seem to me that if they had recorded two discs at the same time they would have one left to print if it should prove unsatisfactory, instead of destroying the only one available. After a while they did in fact do this; so I imagine that the high cost of the equipment in the early days had something to do with it. << less