[78-L] wet playing records

[Michael Biel]

Robert M. Bratcher Jr. wrote:
> At 02:06 PM 2/11/2010, you wrote:
>   
>> Michael Biel wrote:
>>     
>>> The reason why British pressings have so much crackle is because they
>>> used a shellac formula rich in organic fillers and these have
>>> deteriorated in the damp British climate.  That was the subject of John
>>> Stratton's article "Crackle" I mentioned from the BIRS Recorded Sound No
>>> 39, July 1970 p655+.   You learn to be able to see the crackle, and the
>>> water damage.
>>>
>>>       
>> And as DB likely knows, the CBC always bought English pressings wherever
>> possible, even of American recordings, and these still sound 
>> marvelously quiet
>> 70 years later. The green library sleeves have been disintegrating for years
>> but the discs are the quietest I've ever heard outside of vinyls.
>>
>> dl
>>     
>
> Then why is an English Decca 78 rpm classical set I own so full of 
> crackle when it's played? Did it spend part of it's life in the UK 
> before winding up here in the southern US before I bought it used? I 
> guess it did........ 

It's also humid in much of the southern U.S.  I guess it is dry up in 
Canada.  Or air-conditioned with low humidity at the CBC.

Mike (they don't call it canada dry for nothing) Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com