Need to adjust the speed every time I turn on turntable

Cleeds, As I recall, from reading those very same history books, Edison promoted DC electrical transmission. It was Westinghouse and Tesla, who had left Edison, who promoted AC. Edison infamously electrocuted an elephant in order to demonstrate that AC was unsafe.

lewm

Cleeds, As I recall, from reading those very same history books, Edison promoted DC electrical transmission

Exactly. That’s what I wrote. Edison promoted the electric chair to warn about the dangers of AC. All of Edison's early electrification work was DC, such as in NYC, where he ran some of the wires himself.

Sorry for a bit of nothing, but you wrote, "AC is not safer than DC - that was Edison’s argument...."  I interpreted that to mean that Edison argued that AC was safer than DC, which we both know was not the case.  I had a feeling you merely made an error in syntax, but I just wanted to get it straight. Now I see how you meant it.
Just think: If Edison had won the point, we wouldn't need rectification in our audio equipment, but on the other hand the DC voltages available for B+ would in many cases need boosting. Also, it would have been difficult to assure that everyone got the same DCV at home.

@lewm I see now that what I wrote was completely ambiguous!

If Edison had won the point, we wouldn’t need rectification in our audio equipment, but on the other hand the DC voltages available for B+ would in many cases need boosting.

We’d be in a different world if Edison had prevailed, for sure. For one thing, we’d probably be paying a whole lot more for electricity. I think the main reason AC prevailed is because of distribution efficiencies.

Oddly, solar electricity is DC. Edison would have liked that.

phoenixengr

Thank you for that insight around speed fluctuations, phoenixengr! 

In the later 90's, I had a full blown SOTA Star Sapphire with vacuum hold-down / electronic flywheel (line conditioner) - paired with a Fidelity Research fx64 arm with mid-priced Grados.  The speed would hold only through a 3-4 hour listening session no matter what I tried, including swapping out for a new motor with an engineer friend.   In the end, I simply lived with the issue.  Two decades later, it's still comforting to know that something can be done. 

During that experience, my rig was situated on a jouncy upstairs room, presenting a real challenge in isolating the turntable from footfalls, etc.  I tried bladders, masonry (never have had any luck with that,) tiptoes, sorbothane, etc...but, the "cure" in that application was a sandbox with super dry play-sand from hardware store and a carefully leveled maple plinth atop the sand under the SOTA.  Maybe this may help others. 

Happy listening and More Peace, Pinthrift