The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have a complete edison recorder on the way that I'm going to experiment recording with. I intend to try different types of diaphragms glass and mica to see what works best for voice and musical recordings. I would like to use stratena for attaching the stylus to the diaphragm because it's what was originally used and because it can be easily weakened with a little heat. Where can I find stratena? Is it still available?

Thanks

Look at this link. http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... =2&t=30731
and this http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 55&start=0

Peter Wall in San Francisco was making and selling
Stratena on Ebay a few years ago.

Lately, however, he appears to be somewhat MIA, hard
to contact, and very few if any Ebay sales, and no more
Stratena that I know of.

That leaves us the choice of trying to make some
of our own Stratena.

From some things Peter told me on the phone some years
ago while he was making it:

He was using "Jello" brand plain gelatin from the grocery
store. To this he added water, boric acid, and vodka.

I have no idea beyond this what the procedure is, nor
what the proportions are. But I do recall he heated
it up on the stove as he was making it.

He also alluded to the fact that the vodka not only
serves in making the Stratena, but it also aids
in altering the mood of the Stratena maker!

That's about all I know.
Better than nothing.
Probably a reasonable batch could be made
after a few trials and tests.

Any home chemists and/or cooks out there?

It's either that or "No Stratena For You!"

(soup Nazi)...

Does this help?

https://books.google.com/books?id=JAkPA ... ve&f=false

Yes, the book reference does help. Thank you!
I've since turned this over to the folks over
at the chemistry forum at http://www.sciencemadness.org

They have responded with many ideas. Stratena is
a form of glue closely related to various other
kinds of glue such as hide glue.

Turns out that isinglass is also used to
clarify beer, so dried fish bladders are still available.

I think that definitely this is a doable experiment
to make some stratena. It would take a bit of work,
research, and lots of experimentation and testing, but
it's certainly workable.

Think of the vast world market for this stuff!
There must be (let's see now...) at least 3 guys
on the planet who want some, right?

Very Interesting post, so thank you. I had never heard of this before. So I went to ebay and they have several additional advertisements for sale and some empty bottles if anyone else is interested in learning more. It must have been pretty popular in its time. Very interesting advertisement approach.......

Well I think I'm gonna forget about the stratena idea. The recorder arrived yesterday and as I suspected the stylus had fallen off during shipping. The diaphragm also was not in the best of shape. I took a new mica reproducer diaphragm and split off a very thin layer about .003" thick and installed it in the recorder with a new rubber gasket. Then I simply used the same beeswax I used to install the diaphragm to attach the cutting stylus. I shaved a badly worn edison 2 minute black wax cylinder with the shaver on my home model a which worked surprisingly well and made a test recording. Even though I used a black wax cylinder instead of a much softer brown one the recording is loud and clear. Once I get some brown wax recording blanks I'm sure it'll work even better. So far I couldn't be more pleased.

Stephen

Stephen,

There's absolutely nothing wrong with using beeswax
as an adhesive when there's no stratena available.

I've done that a few times myself on various recorder
rebuilds.

Glad that you were able to find the stylus and that
you got it mounted again, and that the recorder works.

What adhesive did you use to fasten the cutter to
the copper holder?

I use beeswax, too for putting the stylus holder to the diaphragm. You would think that super glue would work well, for this, however, it reacts with the copper and does not glue it to glass or mica very well.