I remember seeing an add in the J. C. Whitney catalog (yes it was around back then) for a record player that had a mechanism that would prevent the needle from skipping when you went over a bump. It would mount in your car under the dash board and would only play 45 RPM singles, one at a time. The trouble was it would apply extra pressure on the needle, and would ruin your records.
Then someone invented 8 tracks!
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On reflection I realized that my memory was a bit off, that thing actually played 33 RPM LPs, which made it slightly more useful (and larger). Then you could ruin your albums instead of just your singles!