[78-L] Glass Base 78s

[Michael Biel]

The Decelith discs I have seen and have all seemed to be one solid
non-laminated disc.  Were the top three pictures clearly showing
laminations at the rim chips also Decelith?  The ones I've seen are very
dark and are only slightly translucent.  There was another disc type
I've seem from the German war years is three layer disc with a pure
white center core and black recording surfaces.  They also have paper
labels but I forget the brand name.  The black surfaces have an
unfortunate tendency to stick together and peel off of the white core. 
I saw a large stack of these discs stuck together at the Vienna
Phonogrammarchiv waiting for some way to be discovered to unstick them
in such a way that the black surfaces separate from each other rather
than separate from the white core.  

I wonder if Lennick's disc is an attempt at pressing on a Decelith or a
cutting.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  




From: "Milan P Milovanovic" <milanpmilovanovic4 at gmail.com>


Well, here:

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180076-1.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180078-1.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180079.jpg

you can see that it is plastic core with two recordable "sides" above
and 
below, while on these pictures:

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180080.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180081.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/P8180084.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/scan1.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv34/mmilovan2009/scan2.jpg


it can be seen label design. There is only one side with label marked 
"Decelith", and the other side is blank. Also, translucency of such disc
is 
easily visible as well.

 These discs are 10" in diameter and shown here is inside start recorded

performance, different on each side. I suspect that origin of such discs
is 
radio station somewhere in Croatia or Bosnia. Radio Belgrade station
used 
black Decelith foils during WWII. After the war such Decelith discs
(with 
Nazi speeches and so on) were dumped off from the station, with other
side 
not recorded. Early recording enthusiasts in Belgrade used other blank
side 
to record jazz performances of some musicians as early as 1945 or 1946.
on 
amateur equipment they bought before WWII. Also, they used thick
celluloid 
roentgen films for such occasion with equal success.

Best wishes,
Milan


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2009 6:58 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Glass Base 78s


> I've mentioned this item before and have never seen an explanation. I have 
> an odd pressing, made on some kind of stiff translucent vinyl which is 
> variable in color (bronze, grey, clear in spots). It's Victor 20-1636B, Charlie 
> Spivak's "Only Another Boy and Girl". The catalog number appears in the run-out as 
> it would on a regular pressing (raised) and in the outer edge (scratched). 
> The disc is just over 11 inches in diamater but has four flat edges (and four
> rounded ones), is pressed only on one side but has the sunken indentation 
> for the label on both sides.
>
> Anybody ever seen one of these?
>
> dl
>
> Milan P Milovanovic wrote:
>> Just to make one point clear: Decelith foils (blank discs) were used as
>> early as 1938. for recording in various (portable or studio) machines. 
>> These discs sometimes were translucent with flexible (vinyl ?) core and two 
>> sides. Sometimes only one side was used to record.
>>
>> If someone is interested I can post some photos of such disc.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Milan
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 10:26 AM
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] Glass Base 78s
>>
>>
>> It
>>> wouldn't be vinyl (although the Germans were using vinyl for recording
>>> discs during the war, known as Decelith.)
>>>