Going retro to an extreme!

MarkWComer

MarkWComer

Veteran and General Yakker
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
3,520
Location
Gaston, SC
Tagline
Victim of the record bug since age five
One of three windups in queue for rework.
Victor VV-IV (Victor Victrola Four). Not the original reproducer or winding crank. Grease in the spring is old and sticky making the speed inconsistent. This is the second of four variations, manufactured in 1914.
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The old locals would melt 78’s down and somehow distill alcohol from them. How many records were lost to drunks?
 
AngrySailor said:
The old locals would melt 78’s down and somehow distill alcohol from them. How many records were lost to drunks?
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Never heard that before...
I would think that any solvent would evaporate during manufacture- those shellac biscuits were hot when they went into the stamper. As far as I’ve ever heard, they were a combination of shellac, clay, and carbon black. In essence, they were bricks!
 
MarkWComer said:
Never heard that before...
I would think that any solvent would evaporate during manufacture- those shellac biscuits were hot when they went into the stamper. As far as I’ve ever heard, they were a combination of shellac, clay, and carbon black. In essence, they were bricks!
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I’ll ask the old timers but I doubt they know the “chemistry” of what was going on, it may have been in their heads but I’ve heard from many multiple people that the old timers melted 78’s and drank them. They also drank “aqua velva” or whatever else they could get their hands on...
 
AngrySailor said:
The old locals would melt 78’s down and somehow distill alcohol from them. How many records were lost to drunks?
Click to expand...

My father ws born in 1918, grew up on farms in Ontario and Saskatchean and he told me that same thing about 78 records. It sounded to me like it was what alkies did during the Depression Era. Also about concocting something from ping pong balls, and Sterno of course.

He was no stranger to alcohol and I'm fairly certain, experienced all of the above.
 
WOPL Sniffer said:
HUH? Impossible
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No, just implausible.

BTW, my wife inherited a Mikky Phone from Japan, which is a wind-up phonograph which folds into a lunchbox-size case. The motor spring is overwound and I don't know how to fix it. It looks a lot like this one:

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Since they dissolve the "Beetle Goo" which shellac comes from, in alcohol to make things out of, It is plausible that the guys working with the stuff, stole the alcohol used in the process but it is probably impossible to Distill the alcohol from a completed record.... But it makes a great story
 
Lazarus Short said:
No, just implausible.

BTW, my wife inherited a Mikky Phone from Japan, which is a wind-up phonograph which folds into a lunchbox-size case. The motor spring is overwound and I don't know how to fix it. It looks a lot like this one:

View attachment 49328
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Be careful- if you open those spring barrels they can fly open and slice you up like a potato. Even pulling a broken spring from the barrel can gitcha!

Overwound and locked clockworks will require you to fiddle with the speed governor to release them, getting your fingers caught in a worm gear is another thing to avoid.

Groovy little phono! The Bing “Pygmyphone” is another cool one, Thorens also manufactured these portable (iPod?) machines.
 
Just going by the local lore, never seen it done, but heard the same thing from several people. Very possible it was a placebo effect whatever they were drinking, beats me.
 
Those shellac records make an excellent vintage color stain for oak, I used to build furniture and use it.
 
AngrySailor said:
...They also drank “aqua velva” or whatever else they could get their hands on...
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Got my first paying job in radio the summer of '74 at a daytime country station north of Chattanooga when the afternoon DJ drank an entire bottle of Aqua Velva and got carted off to the hospital. I was pumping gas waiting for something to break between semesters at Furman when the station owner called me and asked if I could get there right then. The gas station manger said to hop to it. I pulled up to the station as they were loading the guy into the ambulance.
 
Bob Boyer said:
Got my first paying job in radio the summer of '74 at a daytime country station north of Chattanooga when the afternoon DJ drank an entire bottle of Aqua Velva and got carted off to the hospital. I was pumping gas waiting for something to break between semesters at Furman when the station owner called me and asked if I could get there right then. The gas station manger said to hop to it. I pulled up to the station as they were loading the guy into the ambulance.
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One older fella near by me drinks that shit. I’ve seen him drink a pint of vodka in one drink and he was loaded to start with... heard on the scanner last week an amber lamps heading to pick him up. You can only keep that shit up so long...
 
AngrySailor said:
They also drank “aqua velva” or whatever else they could get their hands on...
Click to expand...
Cheap fix, I suppose. And I say that after a Drambuie binge- $48 a bottle in these parts. Tasty, but sent my glucose readings into orbit. Grand Marnier wasn’t much cheaper. Yeah, stimulus check, and I binged..
 
I get the no-name rum that is at least 80 proof when I need a cheap binge. I think a 1.5L costs $12.00.
I mention this for a friend, just like Mark did, in the post above.
 
mlucitt said:
I get the no-name rum that is at least 80 proof when I need a cheap binge. I think a 1.5L costs $12.00.
I mention this for a friend, just like Mark did, in the post above.
Click to expand...

My philosophy for the longest time was highest alcohol content + lowest price = best value. Hammered was hammered so cheapest way possible, n'est pas?
 
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