Re: [ARSCLIST] Records History

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Steven C. Barr" wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard Warren" <richard.warren@xxxxxxxx>
> > Dear Mike and List Readers,
> >
> > As you've probably found, some manufacturers released vinyl 78's without
> > notice or with minimal notice. I've seen Columbia 78's pressed in black
> > vinyl with very little if any indication of that fact; and several small
> > labels used vinyl, usually either black or red, most or all of the time.
> > Many children's records were pressed in vinyl, perhaps in order to use
> > colored discs, probably also because of shatter-resistance. Many promos
> for
> > radio station use were pressed in vinyl, while their marketed versions
> were
> > made of shellac. Most vinyl 78's seem to have been marketed after WW II
> > (but there are probably exceptions to that observation).
> >
> The earliest vinyl (or some kind of plastic) records I have seen are a
> handful of Muzak 12" transcriptions which seem to date from 1935 or
> 1936. I have three by Glen Gray...
>
> ...stevenc

Aside from flexi-type discs such as those made in Europe around 1930 and the
various products from Flexo about the same time, the first use I know of a
plastic similar to later vinyl pressings is Vitrolac, which Victor was using
for commercial pressings in 1931. Radio transcriptions for broadcast use, the
early long-playing Program Transcriptions (only twelve-inchers used it, and
then not all of them) and some commercial 78 issues a couple of years later,
such as Schoenberg's Gurrelieder. In the late 30s, Victor was pressing Lucky
Strike premium discs on this same material. Library of Congress folk music sets
used it in 1942, as did V-Discs a year later.

dl