[78-L] Epic Vinyl 78's

[Michael Biel]

Sax Therapy wrote:
> I just bought a collection of a few hundred 78's and there were a 
> couple of Epic 78's that were pressed on vinyl like that on LP's. Can 
> someone tell me more about 78's on vinyl.

If you are asking about 78s in general and not just Epic, the use of
vinyl, celluloid, and other non-shellac-like materials go all the way
back to the 1890s.  Some of the earliest Berliner discs before 1896 are
celluloid.  In 1906 it was used with a paper core by Columbia for the
discs they called Marconi Velvet-tone.  In 1931 Victor used celluloid
with a thicker paper core to make 6-inch pre-grooved recording discs,
and also used vinyl which they called Victrolac for their 33 speed LPs
called Program Transcriptions.  Vinyl was also used at that time for
Victor's 10 and 12-inch pregrooved recording discs.  During the 30s
Vinyl was started to replace shellac for 16-inch broadcast Electrical
Transcription pressings.  Some of Brunswick's ETs were pressed in a
transparent blue cellulose acetate by Flexo, and some of the World
Broadcasting System ETs were pressed in a very flexible opaque clay
colored acetate material.  (This is why broadcasters incorrectly started
to call cellulose nitrate lacquer coated recording discs "acetates"
which is NOT what they were made of, and why they should only be called
"lacquers".)

But back to 78s.  After a side=trip to celluloid in flexible discs like
Flexo, and Durium plastic coated on fibre by Hit of the Week, the next
major diversion away from shellac were the 12-inch 78s distributed to
the military personnel as "V-Discs".  The ones pressed by Victor were
vinyl, but a small amount were pressed by Columbia on their laminated
shellac material.  Victor's vinyl up thru this time was black, but right
after the war they came out with a beautiful transparent Ruby Red vinyl
for their Red Seal DeLuxe pressings.  When Victor came out with the 45
in 1949, they had a rainbow of 7 colors for each different series, such
as blue for pops, yellow for childrens, and red for Red Seal.  Only the
latter two continued on for more than a couple of months.  But in those
post-war years there were some other labels that started using vinyl for
78s.  Cosmo claimed to be the first company using only vinyl, and their
kids set Tubby the Tuba was claimed to be the first major hit
exclusively in vinyl.  Soon most kids records were vinyl, although there
also were celluloid sheets on printed picture paper cores, and stiff
styrene on labels like Little Golden Records.  

The Columbia Lp was only vinyl from the very beginning, and this made
the pressing of vinyl more economical for 78s as the material became
widely used.  Styrene was also used  on pressings on all three speeds,
and some grocery store LP labels like Varsity sometimes used a weird
noisy material that was said to be a mixture of vinyl and shellac. 
Victor introduced a beautiful shellac around 1952 for its 78s that was
as quiet as vinyl and wore much better, but it was still breakable.  But
78s were being phased out, and during the last years both shellac and
vinyl were used, some companies using both.  Most used vinyl for DJ
copies, and the Victor vinyl DJ pressings were very thin with a sharp
knife-blade edge, but their regular store copies in vinyl were as thick
as regular records.

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com