The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

... and I'm not sure what made me turn over this Washington Post March label but I was certainly surprised to find that the ink was a through-and-through mirror image on the back.

I repaired 5 discs with their original labels using a bit of white glue and will print some replacement labels today for those records that didn't have their originals kicking around the box. What prompted all this work? My wife said "we need a phonograph to go on that wall" which prompted me to get my W&M out of storage! I love it when that happens...

Interesting!

Most likely caused by stacking the labels, causing the ink to bleed to the back of the label above.

I'd like to have a wife asking for more phonographs!

Inigo wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 11:59 am I'd like to have a wife asking for more phonographs!

Believe me, this is a first. I'll also always remember the very first time she told me "you NEED to buy that guitar".
I went out and bought a lottery ticket

That is interesting about that label, which looks really good. But I guess the original glue dried up and could no longer hold the label. Funny that Edison is the only record where labels fall off. Maybe the record factory didn't think people would still be listening to them a hundred years later! I don't have a wife to tell me to buy more phonographs, but I still remember my late mother's words, "Marc, you need to stop buying more phonographs!"

Ha! I've suffered from mother, and from wife (since years ago, there's a tacit agreement between us... I don't buy except a few records each year now, and keep things very tidy and well organized at home, and she's learned to live with 5000 78s and a dozen gramophones!).
And years ago I also suffered from poor mom coming to our house, and asking my wife about how did she tolerate my collection... , yet then, I had only half of the collection!

marcapra wrote: Thu May 20, 2021 3:27 am That is interesting about that label, which looks really good. But I guess the original glue dried up and could no longer hold the label. Funny that Edison is the only record where labels fall off. Maybe the record factory didn't think people would still be listening to them a hundred years later! I don't have a wife to tell me to buy more phonographs, but I still remember my late mother's words, "Marc, you need to stop buying more phonographs!"

I don't believe it's an issue with the glue, since there is always paper left in the record. It seems as if the paper itself has separated.

Edison had trouble when attempting to use paper labels on their discs because of the high temperature and the length of time needed to press discs. When they experimented with applying paper labels during the pressing process, they found that the labels would turn an unappetizing shade of brown, so they finally came up with the idea of pressing a blank into the record and pasting a paper label to the blank after the record had cooled. Initially there were plans to fill the etched labels with white lead as was done with cylinders but that never made it into production, although some experimental examples are shown in Ron Dethlefson's Diamond Disc books.
BTW: I have found that Elmer's Washable School Glue Sticks are excellent for repairing DD labels.

Jim

So one of these labels was attached after the fact, the other is original. The "reproduction" was printed on a color printer from an image borrowed from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/ ... detail/432 as the original is long lost. It's not too hard to tell the original from the reproduction but I'm making a note of it in my catalog anyway in case these are passed along some time in the future and I forget what I've done.