The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Fredrik should probably chime in here WRT storage conditions, as that is his field of expertise. I should venture to say that excessive heat is more of a potential problem than cold, and that extremes of humidity (esp. high) should be avoided. Heat certainly plays havoc with vinyl, and I suspect "shellac" is not immune as far as warpage is concerned. And I'm sure many of us have acquired 78 albums which have sat in damp environments and have traces of mold and the musty odor that are hard to eliminated.

They can't have sounded like they do now originally. Played on an Orthophonic machine a bad crackler sounds almost as bad as it does electrically on modern equipment. I have an HMV Rachmaninoff Secord that sounds as if they are pouring lead shot on the piano lid It would be interesting to know how they changed the formula of the " bisquit" around 1926 or so. I just fell heir to a batch of mouldy HMV stuff all single sided Red Seal which dates them nicely in the early twenties. They're almost crackle free , so I would say the earlier can take moisture.
I also found recently a few HMV early thirties sides that are almost as quiet as Columbia laminates..( Gracie Field's marvelous version of Singing in the Bathtub being one ) but side by side with discs that are horrible. Now whether they came from the same house is not clear so I'm not drawing any conclusions. But I wonder which if there is any correlation between the year ,,,or month..the disc was produced and the crackle? And speaking of that...there was a period.... late 1927 and early 1928...when the discs pressed in Montreal have a propensity to develop a very HMV-like crackle...and I will say that I suspect those that do of being stored in a damp environment.
Jim

RJ,

That was a fun one, thanks for posting it.

I would imagine the "problem" with the HMV crackle is a complex combination of materials, environment, and time. For us average collectors storing records in a living area or a humdified cellar is probably the safest option.

Regards,
John

I stumbled across this interesting paper on ideal storage conditions for various media including wax cylinders and 78s when trying to figure out optimal conditions for my wax cylinders.

http://www.keene.edu/library/OrangAsli/sound.pdf

In summary, even wax cylinders are more tolerant than I expected although ideal conditions are temperature between ~52 and 68F and humidity of 45percent. If humidity goes above 65 percent you may start having trouble.

Cheers, Bruce

Fredrik should probably chime in here WRT storage conditions, as that is his field of expertise.

I thank you for your trust in my "expertise". In my daily work however I'm almost entirely dealing with paper, so I can't claim to have professional experience of preserving 78s.

However, a general rule that I've learned is that a stable climate is possibly always the next best thing to having the "perfect conditions". That is: it's not a big problem that your records are kept in a room that is a bit too warm or too cold or too damp if its always roughly the same. It's the sudden changes in temperature or moisture that are dangerous to almost all sorts of material.

Fredrik