ABSTRACT
Begun in the early 1940s by two Danish engineers, Per V. Brüel and Viggo Kjær, the company has expanded to become a major producer of computer-based vibration measurement and sound-analyzer tools used by industry in the production of recording hardware. B&K has more than 1,200 employees, with offices in 55 countries and seven accredited calibration centers worldwide, and currently offers in excess of 450 products, including transducers, a full range of hand-held sound level meters, analyzers, calibration systems, and service products. One of the company’s primary achievements has been the design and production of measurement microphones that have defined new standards for stability and measurement accuracy. [Website: https://www.bkhome.com./]
HOWARD FERSTLER
One of the premier labels in North America and Britain, with great international artists in classical and popular music, first issued, in Canada only, by Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. in 1916. The earliest offerings were vertical-cut, with labels in green. Lateral-cut discs, with violet labels, appeared in the U.S. in January 1920; after 1923 the label color was black, and the price $.75, except for a special double-sided purple series of opera and classics, selling at $1 for 10-inch and $l.50 for 12-inch records. During the acoustic period major dance bands were recorded, such as those of Fletcher Henderson, Ray Miller, and Isham Jones. A hit record by the Mound City Blue Blowers was made in February 1924, “Arkansaw [sic]
Blues”/”Blue Blues” (#2581); it was followed by five more by the Blowers before the group turned to other labels. Operatic celebrities included Mario Chamlee, Sigrid Onegin, Elisabeth Rethberg, Friedrich Schorr, and John Charles Thomas. Access to Polydor matrices was a favorable factor, bringing such artists as Leopold Godowsky, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwängler.
