The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here's a little something that has intrigued me for some time.

In a reprint of the Sears, Roebuck catalogue for Fall, 1900, the Talking Machine section shows a Columbia QQ advertised as 'The Peerless Talking Machine'; with the outfit was offered a bottle of something called 'Liqui-Para'. To quote the text:
"THIS OUTFIT being often used for the smaller class of exhibitions, we have made up a complete and perfect outfit for the purpose, the items of which we give below. Particular attention is directed to the Liqui-Para process included in this outfit without additional charge. This dispenses with the use of an expensive shaving knife, and will completely efface and remove the record from any cylinder in less than a minute, leaving it with a smooth, fine surface, and ready for the recording of any new record which may be desired."

Now this is obviously some sort of solvent - but what, I wonder, was its composition? And how effective would it have been in comparison to shaving?

Has anyone ever come across a surviving bottle of the stuff?

Bill

It may have been turpentine. I remember reading an Edison recording booklet that recommended using turps (or gasoline if I remember correctly) if a shaving machine was not available.
I've tried turps & it does work quite well, but you dont get the smooth shiny level surface obtained with a shaver.
Because it softens & desolves the wax, I've actually applied turps to a spinning cylinder 30 secs before making a recording to soften the surface in place of using a light to heat the cylinder. It can work quite well too, but unless you have a brush attached to the machine while recording, the swarf can often stick to the cylinder & stylus, causing problems during recording & in turn during playback. You also need to allow the cylinder to sit for quite some time before playing the cylinder back (30-60 mins), to allow the turps to completely evaporate & the wax to harden again, otherwise the playback stylus will damage the recording.

Id love to know for my Ediphone cylinders...

Turpentine will work just as well on ediphone/dictaphone cylinders.

Lamp kerosene works better, and makes gold moded wax recordable. I do not recommend doing it alot, as they wear recorders.

Hmm, I wonder why Edison recommended Turpentine instead of kerosene then?
It's not like every phono owner didn't have kero laying around for lamps.

Interesting!

There might be an advantage to using a hybrid approach: kerosene for the rough work; then use a shaver to get the final surface. It certainly might lengthen the life of a blank; as less material is actually removed in the process....

Bill

i saw some bottles of this i think it was christmas 1987 at a antique store, never knew what liqui-para was. wonder if it was just turpentine and maybe 10% alcohol or something.