Question re: the BIG hole

[Darren J Wallace]

In my little word of accumulated record trivia,I had someone explain to me long ago why most 45's had big holes in them.This was supposedly RCA Victor's idea(?) in the 1940's. It was also to compete with Columbia's "new" 10 inch long play records. I guess due to patents and such, RCA made their respective phonographs to change records very quickly. This required making the hole big to accomodate the mechanism in the spindle that held up records waiting their turn to drop(?). I've seen many different models of the little phonographs and they're neat to watch as they are really fast!
I'm not sure if this is the correct history, but it leads me to my question:

Why was this system only "partially" adopted in places like the UK and/or Europe where the 45's were pressed with the option of punching out the centre piece, and why did the Australian market not adopt it?
I guess not all holes are created equal:confused:

 

[nadorozny2001]

could it be for jukeboxes ??

 

[nadorozny2001]

could it be for jukeboxes ??

 

[Clear Light]

Yeah, for the jukebox disc changer mechanism.

 

[Frantic]

the 45 record came out in 1949 and were designed by RCA. There was only 78 rpm jukeboxes up to that point. The 1st 45 rpm juke box came out a year or 2 later. So the juke box had nothing to do with the big hole. It was just just RCA's way to compete with Columbia's new 33 1/3 format.

 

[Clear Light]

I always thought that was the reason, maybe it was just UK 45s with the punch out centres making me think that. But Joey has the right answer. Here's what wikipeadia says:

Beginning in 1939, Dr. Peter Goldmark and his staff at Columbia Records undertook efforts to address problems of recording and playing back narrow grooves and developing an inexpensive, reliable consumer playback system. The 12-inch (30 cm) Long Play (LP) 33⅓ rpm microgroove record album was introduced by the Columbia Record Company at a New York press conference on June 21, 1948.
Unwilling to accept and license Columbia's system, in February 1949 RCA Victor released the first 45 rpm single, 7 inches in diameter with a large center hole. The 45 rpm player included a changing mechanism that allowed multiple disks to be stacked, much as a conventional changer handled 78s. The short playing time of a single 45 rpm side meant that long works, such as symphonies, had to be released on multiple 45s (rather than a single LP), but RCA claimed that the new high-speed changer rendered side breaks so brief as to be inaudible or inconsequential.

 

[reyes]

Also adapters became big business, maybe that's why Australia or other countries didn't want to add the extra cost of adding a spider adapter, to their 45's and just made them with a 33 1/3 hole.