The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

the mold on cylinders isn't always mold certain chemicals can react with air, sunlight and moist you can do this test if you take a dictaphone cylinder and put it in a place with lots of sunlight it will look very moldy in 2 years infact the stuff is brown like rust if you do the same with a edison brown wax blank it will bleed white powder gold moulded cyl get white spots (don't worry i used a broken one)
moist strangely doesn't do much to brown blanks i left some pieces in the bath-shower room and they where un afected edison goldmoulded turns blue!! in a week or so Pathé fares the worst in all the tests they turn brown and blistery in sunlight and turn white in moist the Pathé pieces where the only pieces of wax cyl afected by cigarette smoke they start to shed a grainy powdery material and turn white (even when the wax is black)some pieces bleed red stuff

so do wax cylinders mold... certainly if you wait long enough but there are other factors playing aswell

so keep your wax treasures out of the light don't get them wet or moist and don't leave a cylinder on the mandrel in a smokey room
greetings
tino

Hi Guy's
I have found that just playing a cylinder that is mouldy sometimes helps, you can actually see the mould come off as it plays, but I think you are also taking off the recording as mould has replaced the original wax surface.
But anyway I think by playing them it makes them a little less noisey.
Gordon.

sry that im 11 years late , but are the less shiny more matte spots mold?

phonograph guy3435 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2024 5:45 pm sry that im 11 years late , but are the less shiny more matte spots mold?

I've seen wax Amberols with a dull, foggy aspect that play well despite that. What I am referring to are not spots, but rather an overall dull look over the whole surface. Concerning the gold mould cylinders, in my experience when they have spots usually the sound degrades as well.

saxymojo wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:19 am Hi All

I was once told by a collector with many years experience in cylinders, that it is not mold, it is rust. What are the thoughts on this?

Regards Marcel

It is a chemical efflorescence caused by repeated/prolonged exposure to high humidity.