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

[Michael Biel]

WOW!  Although Allen Koenigsburg is going to say that we should have
found it in "The Patent History of the Phonograph" several decades ago,
you have discovered THE patent that completely describes the Marconi
Velvet-Tone record.  And since Thomas MacDonald takes SOLE credit for
inventing it, what the hell did Marconi do except have his picture on
the label??????????????

And read the description of how the record is pressed -- from two sheets
of celluloid and a cardboard sheet.  It is not made from two blobs of
stuff on the cardboard, but two already formed and sized SHEETS.

I am still looking for the film I saw which shows how Columbia pressed
laminated records in the 30s or 40s which also shows that the surfaces
were SHEETS, and that the core was a blob.  All of us had thought it
would be the other way around, that there was a prepared "powder blank"
of a core and paper that would have a blob of shellac with labels placed
on each side and put into the press that way.

This might also mean that the very early Berliner celluloid discs might
also have been pressed into sheets rather than blobs.  Did he likewise
later press into sheets of shellac???

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
 

-------- Original Message --------
From: "Martha" <MLK402 at verizon.net>
> Celluloid it may be, and perhaps this very patent, which even
> shows the same pattern on the reverse:
> http://tinyurl.com/yggel26
> Keep away from open flame !


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>> Perhaps Don meant blue label? Assuming that we are talking about the
> 1906 Marconi Velvet-Tone Columbia pressings, the surfaces are indeed
> black and with the exception of Martha's Spanish discs were
> single-sided, with the back side having a large info label surrounded by
> a cross-hatch pattern that probably was meant to grab onto the turntable
> felt. They obviously differ from regular Columbia laminated pressings
> in that they are only 3-ply rather than 5 ply, not having the thick
> center core and only one paper layer instead of two. But I don't think
> the surfaces are the same material as the regular laminated surfaces.
> Considering the edge chips and flakes on regular laminated discs, I
> don't think the regular surfaces are as soft and pliable as the
> Marconi's. They could be celluloid or a mixture of celluloid and
> shellac without filler.
>