Re: [AV Media Matters] old phonograph records

[lanyap@inlink.com]

Yes Michael,

You have once again suggested that less than thorough cleaning is just
fine.  Your advice wrt Diamond Discs is contrary to the repeated comments
made by a very respected DD authority at ARSC meetings that you
attended,.as well as the remarks of numerous individuals who have actual
experience with water based cleaning protocols.  Nevertheless you continue
to pass on misinformation.  Alcohol wiping of DDs is a poor excuse for
quality cleaning.  Shame on you.  Records are actually more than
collector's artifacts or academic's fodder.

An effective solution to this person's needs would have been to suggest
borrowing the best tools available for the task, not to suggest wasting
time on mediocre methods.  Alternately a request for help in cleaning these
4 discs would have been better met by suggesting that someone on the list
who uses better tools might offer to safely & thoroughly clean these discs
for a modest charge.

Perhaps you'll someday actually hear the difference better cleaning makes
and actually realize the full quality of many of these recordings.

Cheers,

Duane Goldman

Moderators Comment:
Sometimes being a moderator of this list is a great job - and then there are
other times like now. The purpose of this list is an exchange of ideas
between professionals - and in that exchange there is likely to be
differences of opinion. This is healthy and desirable. In many of the issues
that are discussed in this list there are few right or wrong answers, but
there certainly are different opinions.... this too is healthy. But there is
a difference with disagreeing with a posting and a personal attack.
Disagreements that include information are very useful to us all. Personal
attacks are not, and are specifically forbidden in the rules of this list.

So what do I do with a posting like this? Post or not post?  I have chosen
to post it on the basis that it does include ADDITIONAL INFORMATION that
represents a different point of view, and for that reason is of some merit -
but it clearly walks across the line of a personal attack on a number of
occasions, which is not acceptable. For the record I will allow 1 (as in
ONE) rebuttal from Michael and that will be it unless there are some more
useful, factual, and dare I say more FRIENDLY aspects to these postings. I
for one learned quite a bit from Michaels posting and found it well thought
out and had many good ideas that I am glad he shared... I appreciate him
taking the time to write the posting. Many of us on this list come from
different areas of expertise and do not have as great a knowledge in certain
areas that we may not be called upon to work in, so it is hard for us to
evaluate which techniques are preferred for different media in different
situations - and believe it or not some things that work on one media type
have never been tried on others and may actually be of great value to the
community. This "cross fertilization"
of ideas is very important - but it cannot happen in an environment where
people who offer their ideas must fear a personal and very public attack in
front of their peers (and in some cases in front of their clients who are on
this list too).

Many of the members of this list are passionate in their work and beliefs -
that is great and those of you who know me personally know that I have great
passion for this work as well. BUT - Attacking others publicly for their
different opinions is unacceptable, and those who practice personal attacks
in postings  will soon find that they are not being posted and they will
force me into a position where I will be forced to remove them from the
list, and I REALLY don't want to do that or be the policeman. If nothing
else have pity for me and understand that this type of thing puts the
moderator in a very difficult position.

Your humble List Moderator.... anyone want this job?

Jim Lindner

At 11:38 AM 10/31/00 -0800, you wrote:
>
>MJScott@archives.state.al.us wrote:
>> We have 3 Edison Diamond Discs and 1 blue-label Columbia
>> Graphophone Record which are very dirty.  Does anyone have any
>> advice on what would be the best method for cleaning them?
>> Mary Jo Scott    Alabama Dept. of Archives and History
>
>While the suggestions given by my pals Joe Salerno and Graham Newton
>are quite fine--they did not take into account that you are talking
>about ONLY FOUR RECORDS.  You certainly do not need to go to any
>elaborate methods, expensive machines, special fluids and brushes
>that are sometimes discussed here.
>
>But most importantly, the earlier answers forgot to tell you a VERY
>important piece of information.  You NEED to know that these two
>different types of discs need radically different materials.  It is
>suggested NOT to use water with Edison discs but to wipe the
>surfaces with alcohol.  You do not want water or other liquids to
>get into the core of the record, some of which were made of wood
>pulp.  BUT ALCOHOL MUST NEVER BE USED ON ANY OTHER 78!!!  A trace of
>mild liquid dishwashing detergent in water can be used for these.
>Try to keep the label dry, and make sure you dry the record
>thoroughly.
>
>Sure, there are specially formulated cleaning fluids and special
>brushes made, but for only four records you are better off with just
>this simple method.  A good basic brush to get into the grooves
>while cleaning are the rectangular replacement painter pads used on
>painting-edgers.  They are about 3x4 inches.  They come in packs of
>two, so you can use one for water and the other for alcohol.  But
>you must NOT use fluids designed for vinyl LPs like Discwasher
>becuase these might contain a trace of alcohol, and this will
>immediately ruin the Columbia and all other 78s other than Edison
>Diamond Discs.
>
>Michael Biel  m.biel@morehead-st.edu
--
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