Re: [ARSCLIST] broken glass records--a possible approach to repair

["Steven C. Barr" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Watsky, Lance" <lwatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Thank you for for your kind response. I know that Chicago Albumen Works
perfected a procedure for removing photographic emulsion from deteriorated
acetate negatives. I haven't heard about transferring emulsion from prints,
I would be very interested in learning more about this. There is a company
based in Germany that can actually split paper in half and then reaffix the
deteriorated paper to a new backing.
>
> Prior to creating my Master's program in the Preservation and Restoration
of Motion Pictures and Recorded Sound, California State university, Chico,
1995, I worked for several years as an Art Conservator Assistant, where I
gained experience in some of the skills for removing pigment from canvas.
>
> Hopefully by talking about glass, the list was going to ultimately be able
to get into to a discussion about ways to get recorded information off of
broken shellac or broken glass records. If we utilize adhesive tape to hold
the pieces of the broken record together then we are not making the disc
stronger and the adhesives can in fact have some terrible effects.
>
> While talking to my Glass Blower friend, I was hoping to find out about
the "adhesive" quality of hot glass and whether or not the different pieces
of the broken glass recording could be held together by a thin bead of "hot"
glass. The next logical question would be, if the record needle would glide
over the new glass. The points where there is no audio (new glass) could
then be removed in a digital workstation.
---
Since the recording is actually a thin layer of another material on a glass
"body," couldn't using
molten glass to reconstruct the glass body possibly cause damage to the
coating, which contains
the information?

Likewise, isn't thre a possibility that breaking the glass body might create
discontinuances in
the coating, with possible loss of small pieces of the coating?

Finally, if the coating could be removed from each broken piece, could it
then be reassembled
(with missing portions replaced with a similar substance, which would carry
no information
but might need to have short segments of blank grooving to insure the stylus
can track the
interruption) on a less fragile disc?
Steven C. Barr