[78-L] Record Torture

[Steve Williams]

I happened to encounter a mystery just the other day, I opened a thin box of
about 25 78s, mostly Guy Lombardo laminated Columbias, and a couple of red
and black wax Microphones.  The Montreal pressings are fine, but every one
of the Columbias is incredibly fragile, they were breaking and crumblng just
by holding them by the edge and two thirds towards the spindle, they can be
broken easily between thumb and two fingers, with brown dust falling out of
the core.  There's no chance to play them.  I've never heard of this before
but I haven't seen these records for years, and using visual recollection of
when I was emptying out the garage for the Move, it's POSSIBLE they were
kept buried in the garage near a leaking bottle of antifreeze.  That's all I
can say.  I've encountered noisy HMVs, I bought a box of apparently unplayed
Paul Robeson and Noel Cowards, including South African pressings, all in the
original sleeves, from Bee-Bee's in St.Lawrence Market, they were all noiser
than the US Victors even when the latter had normal wear.

Steve Williams  ..
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Message: 4
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 11:05:13 -0800 (PST)
From: DAVID BURNHAM <burnhamd at rogers.com>
Subject: [78-L] Record torture
To: "78-L at 78online.com" <78-L at 78online.com>
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>Not having anything better to do the other day, I decided to torture a
record. ?We were experiencing the coldest day of the season, (-16 degrees
C.), so I took a standard >Victor 78 rpm record in excellent condition and
placed it naked in a box. ?I then placed it in my back yard. ?The box would
shield it from wind and precipitation but >would not protect it from the
cold. ?The box was white so it wouldn't absorb any heat from the sun. ?I
wanted as much as possible to simulate the situation that the >records in my
outdoor storage units experience. ?I have stored records in my garage for
years but one and a half walls of the garage abut the house so some heat
comes >from that. ?This record suffered further because I took it directly
from the warm house to the cold outdoors, (the heat variance in the units is
gradual), and then a >couple of days later brought it directly back into the
warm house. ?The record survived with flying colours! ?No damage
whatsoever! ?So I guess extreme cold and rapid >temperature changes don't
hurt 78s after all. ?

>If we have another cold spell, this record may spend some more time in the
box, because -16 isn't by any means the coldest temperature Toronto
experiences in a normal >winter!

db


Message: 8
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 19:41:53 -0000
From: "Tim Huskisson" <timhuskisson at btinternet.com>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Record torture
To: "'78-L Mail List'" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
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>I never realised in the past how detrimental to the playing surface of 78
>records the effects of damp, moisture and temperature can be.
>Of course common sense should tell us that laminated records are made of
>layers of different materials. Each material has its own properties and
will
>expand or contract at different rates with temperature changes. Any
>lamination cracks or indeed any place on the record where the surface isn't
>completely sealed will be susceptible to penetration by damp or
>condensation. 

>But non-laminated 78s can be affected less obviously. I've noticed that
many
>of my (even visually, E+) records (particularly 1920s era British HMV's)
>suffer from excessive 'frying bacon' crackle on playing. I'd always
presumed
>that this was simply a result of the technology of the period. But some are
>worse than others, and I've noticed that the reason would seem to be the
>presence of tiny bubbles on the surface. You need a magnifying glass to see
>them, but they are definitely present on the noisier records. I can only
>assume that decades of exposure to the British climate has caused this -
>or... in the past they have been stored in damp surroundings.

Regards

Tim Huskisson