[78-L] Glass Records

[David Lennick]

This was part of a thread originating on ARSClist about an archive of glass based transcriptions and the care and handling of same, and how delicate they are..this will illustrate how delicate they WERE 65 years ago. By chance I just found a book about the history of Toronto radio station CFRB and opened it at a passage about transcribed programs. And don't give me heartburn about "acetate"..I'm just quoting.

 

"The sixteen-inch discs gave the operators a great deal of trouble during the war. The acetate surface was moulded on a platter of aluminum, but by 1942 the aluminum was needed for the war effort. So a glass base was substituted. Though RB was receiving some soap operas from CBS on the line, many of them were coming in on records, one episode per side. 'We always unpacked the records very carefully indeed,' [operator Butch] Harrison said, 'but as often as not the glass would be shattered. The acetate, however, being more resilient, would still be holding, with its grooves intact. So we'd have to slide the disc onto the turntable a quarter-inch at a time,' Harrison said, 'and pat it down nice and easy, so as not to ruin the recording. It sometimes took us half an hour to get the disc in place. THEN we'd worry about how the hell we were going to get it off again, turn it over for the next day's episode, and play it again."

 

Never heard of today's standard method of sandwiching it between two aluminum discs, obviously!

 

dl


 
> To: 78-L at 78online.com
> From: audiofixer at verizon.net
> Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 10:26:57 -0400
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Glass Records
> 
> The glass base is quite thin, and a sudden change in temperature
> will cause the glass to expand or contract enough to shatter it.
> I learned this the hard way. Even the warmth of one's hands
> may cause this when holding a cold disc! And any fluids used
> to clean and rinse the disc should be at room temperature!
> 
> Doug
> 
> > Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 16:49:39 -0700
> > From: "Kevin P. Mostyn" <lists at MOSTYN.COM>
> > Subject: Re: Glass Records
> >
> > I have handled a few thousand glass-base 16" discs in my life. 
> > Currently,
> > there are about a thousand of these in my garage.
> >
> > They are extremely fragile. I have seen them break merely by being 
> > picked up
> > carefully. Once when doing research in the bowels of the LOC, a disc
> > shattered in the hands of the person assisting me. He was very 
> > experienced
> > with such discs (the eponymous Jim Smart), he did everything 
> > correctly, but
> > it shattered nonetheless.
> >
> > My advice is to treat them as if they were explosive. Carry only 
> > one at a
> > time. Try to carry it on a flat sacrificial aluminum base 16" disc. 
> > Never
> > leave it unsupported. Avoid any situation where it might flex, 
> > because it
> > doesn't want to flex; it wants to break. If moving a box of them, 
> > make sure
> > that the box is reasonably rigid and that the contents are 
> > protected from
> > external forces and that the contents cannot flex.
> >
> > Although glass has a smoother surface than metal, World War II was the
> > reason for its widespread use. Aluminum was declared a war priority 
> > item and
> > was unobtainable for civilian use. In addition, there were large 
> > "drives" to
> > solicit donations of aluminum from the public. Vast numbers of 
> > aluminum 16"
> > disks were donated to these drives (as well as pots and pans), thus
> > destroying a large part of our audio legacy. Then there were 
> > services that
> > would recoat used aluminum discs with fresh lacquer for reuse, again
> > destroying more of our audio history. It's a miracle that any 
> > survived; it
> > also explains why so little of pre-war transcriptions exist. The 
> > majority of
> > 16" lacquers that I have seen are from 1940 though the mid-1950s. 
> > The ones
> > from 1934 through 1939 are relatively scarce. Unfortunately, none 
> > of "us"
> > were around and in a position to do anything about it back then! 
> > Libraries
> > didn't archive such things.
> >
> > Lacquer transcriptions were made for various purposes, such as 
> > syndication,
> > delayed broadcast, verification of commercials that were broadcast, 
> > etc. In
> > addition, there was a law in America that any shortwave broadcast from
> > America had to be recorded. Millions were made over the years, but 
> > sadly,
> > history has not treated them well. Those that survive are slowly 
> > being eaten
> > by palmitic acid. It's a lugubrious tale.
> >
> > --Kevin Mostyn
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