The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Darren & Henry have it right.

I will add one extra step.
After you select a binder (an album), hold it and jog the discs forward away from the binding. Then make your selection from the fanned pages. Don't hold the album like a book and flip the pages, all of the records roll towards the back and will have opportunity to crack in that tight area.
Never lay it open on a flat surface and flip the pages, for that is the kiss of death.

James.

This post didn't originally have anything to do with albums, but I'm so glad it went that way! I have learned so much!

Back to the crack theme, these lamination cracks are caused by the difference in materials and the effect that humidity and temperature have on them. The bending force imparted by flipping pages on albums would normally not be the responsible for such cracks, and non-laminated discs are more susceptible to be the victims of voracious albums and have a chunk eaten by these dangerous creatures.

The records like that I've found with those cracks are one's I've always associated with being stored in an attic or someplace where they went through heat and freezing cycles. I forget too that shellac is an organic material and that paper in the middle has to move at a different rate than it would. And shellac is very much affected by humidity. At least it doesn't pop loose and curl like those metal home recording records with the acetate on them. THAT would be scary...

I bought a Brunswick Panatrope a couple of years ago and the guy told me that the machine had always been in the front room. His grandparents bought it new in 1927 and he got it in the 1950's from them. Unfortunately is was a sunny front room and the cabinet was really faded, but the albums were all full of Columbia viva-tonal records and are like brand new yet. And in those machines the albums lay horizontally. Too bad the woman only seemed to have liked tenor solos and a few pipe organ numbers, but they are all like new!

EarlH wrote:The records like that I've found with those cracks are one's I've always associated with being stored in an attic or someplace where they went through heat and freezing cycles. I forget too that shellac is an organic material and that paper in the middle has to move at a different rate than it would. And shellac is very much affected by humidity. At least it doesn't pop loose and curl like those metal home recording records with the acetate on them. THAT would be scary...

I bought a Brunswick Panatrope a couple of years ago and the guy told me that the machine had always been in the front room. His grandparents bought it new in 1927 and he got it in the 1950's from them. Unfortunately is was a sunny front room and the cabinet was really faded, but the albums were all full of Columbia viva-tonal records and are like brand new yet. And in those machines the albums lay horizontally. Too bad the woman only seemed to have liked tenor solos and a few pipe organ numbers, but they are all like new!

So now you're the big expert. After you took advantage of "the woman" precious memories. Pox on you.

So now you're the big expert. After you took advantage of "the woman" precious memories. Pox on you.

If you'll pardon my saying so, that is a very strange interpretation of Earl's contribution to this interesting discussion. [/derail]

Though I haven't seen too many of the kind of cracks that winsleydale started this thread about, it does seem clear that extremes of temperature and humidity are especially hard on laminated records, for the reasons that Darren and others have noted. But my guess would be that the OP's cracks have been caused by a previous owner flipping album pages too carelessly, and it's possible that if these weren't laminated records, they'd have broken apart. The lamination may be the reason they're still (mostly) holding together.

I've found that laminated records tend to be more difficult to accidentally break than non-laminated ones, but that didn't stop me from getting a (formerly) nice copy of The Dixie Stompers' Snag It in two pieces in the mail a couple of days ago due to inadequate packaging. They're pretty sturdy, but not indestructible, alas.