A number of recordings were pressed at 16⅔ rpm (usually a 7-inch disc, visually identical to a 45 rpm single). Peter Goldmark, the man who developed the 33⅓ rpm record, developed the Highway Hi-Fi 16⅔ rpm record to be played in Chrysler automobiles, but poor performance of the system and weak implementation by Chrysler and Columbia led to the demise of the 16⅔ rpm records. Subsequently, the 16⅔ rpm speed was used for radio transcription discs or narrated publications for the blind and visually impaired, and were never widely commercially available, although it was common to see new turntable models with a 16 rpm speed setting produced as late as the 1970s.
Yeah, I used to have a player that would do 16 33 45 and 78 rpm speeds. I've never seen one that would actually play it, but there are two Earth bootlegs that purport to be cut at 16 rpm. How one would be able to tell I can't say.
weren't a lot of the old gramaphone records 16rpm? this'd make sense as 'radiograms' as they were sometimes called were kind of the next step in terms of newer technolgy weren't they