[78-L] Pressed in WHAT material...

[John Maeder]

The very earliest (1887-1890) cylinder records used in the Edison Talking Doll and with Edison's 'Improved' and 'Class M' Phonographs were blended wax compounds that proved fragile and difficult to record upon due to atmospheric changes in those pre-HVAC days, and were subject to extreme wear upon playback.  After 1890. research was begun on using non-lathering metallic soap compounds (i.e., zinc, lead, tin stearates) to make cylinders.  These early cylinders were highly acidic and tended to foul the iron cutting stylii by rusting them almost immediately.  They also tended to cloud over overnight on their surface with a chemical glaze that was difficult to cut through and caused greater surface noise upon playback.  I have heard that these cylinders smelled much like strong cigar tobacco.  These problems were largely solved by the collaborative work of Thomas Hood Macdonald (chief engineer of American Graphophone) and Adolph Melzer (and his brother), soap chemists of Evansville, Indiana contracted by Macdonald.

Also 1886-1895 (at the very latest), were the 1-5/16"x6" constant-bore thin cardboard cylinders developed by Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter for their invention, the Graphophone.  These cylinders were thinly coated with an ozocerite was and unlike Edison's much thicker solid 'wax' cylinders, were not shaveable and re-recordable.  These were rendered obsolete very quickly by Edison's format and many Graphophones were converted to accept Edison's cylinder with the addition of a tapered-bore removable mandrel.

Molded celluloid cylinders were first developed in a proprietary format by Lioret in France, and then independently by Philpot in England and/with Lambert in the US (1900). Lambert cylinders have no cardboard core -- they are completely thin celluloid and only contact the mandrel on the ends.  Varian Harris in the US also developed molded celluloid cylinders, and these do have thicker cardboard cores.  The subject of molded celluloid cylinders is a subject all to itself!

In 1902, Edison produced molded cylinders in metallic soap.  These are the relatively ubiquitous cylinders commonly called "black wax" by collectors today.  While the soap compound that these are made from (developed by Edison's chemist Jonas Aylesworth) is harder than previous formulations (since shaving and recording was not applicable), the real neccesity of the formulation is a predictable shrinkage rate, since the hot soap when injected into the mold, must shrink the depth of the groove plus a little more when the mold is chilled in order for the record to drop cleanly from the mold.  The introduction of four-minute wax Amberols in late 1908 required an even harder soap to hold the walls of the fine 200tpi groove.  This harder soap resulted, unfortunately, in a much more brittle record!

> Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:36:03 -0600
> From: ampex354 at gmail.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Pressed in WHAT material...
> 
> Polyvinyl chloride was developed in the 1930s, and was used for pressing
> transcriptions almost immediately.  It wasn't used for commercially released
> records until the late 1940s.
> 
> Very early cylinders were a kind of wax compound, but by the 1890s a harder
> compound Edison came to describe as a 'metallic soap' was used.  The Lambert
> company was one of the first to use celluloid to mould his cylinders from
> (these cylinders had a cardboard core), and Edison began using celluloid for
> his Blue Amberol cylinders (using a plaster of Paris core).
> 
> You are correct, AFAIK bakelite was never used for record manufacture.
> 
> On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 8:10 AM, Milan P Milovanovic <
> milanpmilovanovic4 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Hello list members,
> >
> > I came across this article:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac
> >
> > Also this one:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite
> >
> > Both claimed that "some" records were made from bakelite:
> >
> > "Until the advent of vinyl around the 1940s, most gramophone records were
> > pressed from shellac compounds (although some were made from bakelite)"
> >
> > "Recording cylinders produced by the Edison Electric Company (now General
> > Electric) and 78-rpm phonograph records were originally made of Bakelite. "
> >
> > I would like to know if such statements are close to the truth. I always
> > thought that no bakelite was used in phonograph record production.
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Milan
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