Re: [ARSCLIST] 78rpm archaeology project

[Howard Friedman <hsf318@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steven, you wrote,

I assume the label is applied after the record emerges
> from the press..or?
>
A "biscuit" (a more-or-less round piece of shellac compound, which would
be "squished" into a shellac-compound phonorecord...) was placed in the
"press" (which consisted of both stampers). The two labels were also
placed...one on top, one on the bottom...in the press. The result was
(almost always) a pressed phonorecord, including not only both sides
but also the labels therefor...!

I don't know where the above came from, but it is quite correct.  The labels went into the press along with the biscuit, otherwise they never would have adhered to the cooled record.  You can refer to Eldridge Johnson's original desceription in his U.S. Patents No. 739,318, pateneted Sept. 22, 1903, and No. 778,976, patented Jan. 3, 1905.  Both refer to a "warmed material" first being placed into the press, etc., etc., etc.

As to whether later or current methods use automation to soften the material, measure the "biscuit," and place it onto the press, I am not cognizant of later practices.  But it would certainly take a gigantic piece of equipment, and one for each of numerous presses used, to perform such a series of tasks.

Howard Friedman