[78-L] Glass based recordings

[Michael Biel]

Al Haug wrote:
>  I have read that at least some of the pre-Atlantic Ray Charles
> sides were cut in the studio on 16" glass transcriptions.
> Does anyone know if they used glass discs in the mastering process?
The Europeans had used glass base for early gelatin and lacquer discs 
around 1933 and 34, and Presto was experimenting with glass in 1940.  
Both Presto and AudioDevices announced their glass discs at the May 1941 
National Association of Broadcasters convention and shipped their first 
glass around June 1, 1941.  Although war was already on in Europe, the 
excuse for testing glass in 1940 was not shortages or the prospect for 
shortages, but that glass does not flex and would be a better base for 
mastering for plating.  Especially since long term storage was not a 
problem when plating, this seemed logical, but it soon became evident 
that shortages would make aluminum for discs scarce.  Using the NAB as 
the place to introduce the discs makes the latter situation more 
evident, but they still were good for mastering.  And, of course the 
steel discs that ALCO started shipping May 15, 1941 were lousy for 
mastering since they flexed quite a bit!  I recall reading that they 
stopped making glass discs in the spring of 45 even before the end of 
the war, but I don't see this in my dissertation -- I thought I had 
mentioned it there.  The other info is included there.  So the glass 
that shows up after the war is old stock, either leftover at the 
recording facility, or perhaps discounted by the distributors and 
dealers.  Mastering studios do not like using discs over two years old, 
so that might be the end of when they were used for quality purposes.  
But heck, all my blanks are over 40 years old but I'm not a "quality" 
studio!!

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com