[78-L] blue amberols

[Taylor Bowie]

What about the red records from the 20s?  They seem to be "all red" and not 
dyed red...the color must have been mixed in ahead of time.

I can't even figure how they did those splatter wax things.  I can 
understand paper marbling and have seen it done,  but the record process is 
a mystery.

T


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 5:17 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] blue amberols


> Ron Dethlefson would know, but I think it was said that the raw
> celluloid tubes were ugly so they needed to be dyed some color, and blue
> would do the trick.  The dying took place before pressing, and the long
> unsupported tubes were just dipped into the dye vats.  But the blue
> sometimes varied from almost black to a light robin-egg blue.  And don't
> forget that the more expensive opera series were Royal Purple.  Some of
> the celluloid Lambert cylinders were pink with a white inside, but many
> were black.  Indestructibles and U.S. Everlastings were black.  Anybody
> see any of those in colors?
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [78-L] blue amberols
> From: Donna Halper <dlh at donnahalper.com>
> Date: Thu, July 16, 2009 7:53 pm
> To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>
> This month, I am teaching a group of adorable and very precocious
> immigrant kids (Chinese and Vietnamese mostly, ranging in age from 8
> to 12), tutoring them in English and helping them learn about
> American history/pop culture, etc. I brought in some artifacts of
> early media, like a newspaper from 1865, a children's magazine from
> 1889, and a couple of cylinders... they were especially curious about
> the blue amberol I showed them -- why was it blue, how did it get to
> be blue, did the color affect the sound quality in any way, etc. I
> do recall an ad campaign from Vocalion Records in the early 20s about
> how "Red records are better!" But I am not an expert on cylinders-- 
> like, why the color blue was chosen or how the color was achieved...
> We may have discussed this a while back, but I don't recall. Any
> explanations would be appreciated!
>
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