Restoring a Phonograph record from the 1940s

[Speedy]

Looks like paper. I remember getting paper records on cereal boxes.

[Dennis S]

Call up the Library of Congress and ask for help. I bet you get some good leads and who knows, they may do it themselves.

[Psurfer]

I could be mistaken, but that disc sure appears to be covered with something over its entire surface -including the label- that would keep it from playing, like parchment or waxed paper, plasticized coating etc, maybe originally intended as a protective covering to be removed when/if this original master disc would be needed to be reproduced.
I've never seen anything like that peeling off from the actual vinyl of vintage direct-recorded discs, including similar RCA phonograms.

If I'm right (the peeling surface stuff will have no grooves, but the record underneath may still be pristine), then the question will just be how best to remove the stuck stuff. 70-odd yrs might render the job easy, or tricky. Luckily, the record itself will have no problem w/water, but anything else used on it will have to be non-destructive, and leave little to no residue. Don't Scrub it.

[The UnDoug]

Thanks, everyone.

Psurfer, the record (which I saw for the first and only time a couple weeks ago) *did* seem as thought there might be some type of film on it.

I pointed my dad to this thread (hi, Dad!), and I'll be interested to hear his thoughts on it (he has the record at his house).

[Rolando]

I was thinking a laser reader might be the best, but call the Library of Congress, they might help or not, but all it cost you was phone call!

[Dennis S]

Didn't those paper records on cereal boxes have a film over the grooves. If it was a one-off record, I would think they might use paper because of the cost.

[Joey Cupcakes]

voodoopenguin wrote:
The extra three holes are because this is the original recording, the extra holes were how the machine gripped the disc when carving the groove to make the recording so that there was no slip. It's a 78 so should play on any record player that can play that speed however I believe that these original discs are made on a softer material so if they have been played a lot then there would be a lot of wear and the sound quality would be affected. From studio made discs they would have made tougher extra discs to sell and the original cut should not be played much to conserve the quality.

Paul

Yes, the material used for cutting (wax or lacquer, possibly on a metal substrate) is decidedly softer than the shellac used for 78s of that era. You cannot treat it the same way in terms of cleaning, repairing cracks, etc. Very delicate.

[olswanger]

Would any of you know of conservators who could repair old 1940s record albums so that they could then be digitalized? I have some old albums from my grandparents. There was a flood where the albums were stored, and I understand that the technology used to make those albums was such that the album surface was adhered with a kind of glue. The album surface has broken off in places from the water penetration and I'm wondering if there's any way the surfaces could be re-adhered so that the albums could then be digitalized.

Thanks for any advice about whom to contact. (I'm in the NYC area.)