The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just picked up a small box of brown wax Columbia cylinders at a garage sale including one large Edison Concert cylinder. All the boxes and lids are in near perfect condition BUT the record cylinders are covered with white spots. Mold? What is the best way to clean these without causing any serious damage to the records? Brian Keith

Unfortunately the damage has already been done. It actually eats into the surface of the wax leaving the space now occupied by mold, and pits will be the result. Depending on how heavy the mold is they can still be played but there will be noise. You can also shave them down and record on them. Post some photos so we can see how bad they are. Steve

They might still be playable. I've got a late Columbia brown wax of Arkansas Traveler. Loud surface noise but still very audible- the original recording was very loud.

Ouch, too bad. I'll post some photos when I get a chance. The boxes alone were worth the money, plus the large Edison Concert cylinder only has two small spots of mold along the very edge, not actually in the playing surface.

Don't ever shave brown wax cylinders until you know what's on them. There was a guy who had a box of what he thought were worthless brown wax and he wanted to have them shaved down so he could record on them. Fortunately, the guy who was going to do the shaving played them first. They turned out to be 1892-94 recordings done by a local phonograph company and announced as such!

Sometimes brown wax cleans up surprisingly well with a gentle wiping using a clean, soft cotton cloth (old t-shirts work well).

George P.

I love brown wax cylinders. You never know what you will find on them and that can be exciting. Here is a group that I found awhile back. Almost all of them had mold spots and imperfections. But they all played surprisingly well.

Has it ever been determined whether the 'mold' is actually a mold or fungus or mildew, or if it is a chemical bloom caused from high humidity? I have heard both. If it is a plant, is it a mold or a fungus? I heard once that it was actually a fungus, so I put Micotin on an affected cylinder. It did not make any of it go away, but the 'grease' did penetrate the discoloration a bit and made it darker. Still a lot of surface noise.

So how many years were these early fragile brown wax cylinders made before they were dropped for the regular black 2-minute cylinders? Plus I assume the mold (or fungus) was always a problem with these wax cylinders? Just curious.....

Brown Wax lasted into the very early 20th C. Columbia was selling it's old stock through Sears, I think by that time they were making molded records just to use up the remaining raw material. Columbia flogged off an enormous amount of outdated stuff through Sears: if you bought the Sears Oxford or Harvard discs they were pressed from Columbia masters which might be a decade old.

What Eric said. As far as dates, brown wax appeared in 1889 and pretty much died out in late 1901. Stocks were sold off for a few more years, and some companies such as Burke & Rous (in New York City) continued to make/sell brown wax records in very small quantities for a few years. Most brown wax found will date between 1897-1902.

George P.