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Author
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Topic: Were shellac phonograph records inflammable?
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
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Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 02-01-2013 09:09 AM
This story in my local paper (basically, an advertorial for an independent, volunteer-run cinema in a small town in north-east England) caught my eye, and specifically this note of a fire at a rival theatre:
quote: By 1927, it had acquired a balcony, talkies of the town, but had also gained competition. When the Gaiety up the road mysteriously burned down three years later, the fire brigade found highly inflammable gramophone records placed carefully on every seat.
This sounds not quite right to me. Most records at the time were a shellac/mix filler compound. As far as I know, neither are inflammable. At least, I've never attempted to ignite one, though I might try over the weekend as an experiment.
I'm wondering if (a) records made for distribution to theatres were pressed on some sort of non-brittle base to avoid breakage in transit (nitrocellulose on a metal base, for example), or (b) this was incorrectly reported, and in fact the arsonist put something else on every seat, e.g. bits of nitrate film. If this was in 1930 there could have been Vitaphone discs around, but they were pressed on shellac, too - I've handled some.
Any thoughts?
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Stephen Furley
Film God
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Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 02-02-2013 09:03 PM
Shellac can burn, but it's not highly flammable. It was one of the ingerdients of sealing wax; I don't know if it still is. A stick of sealing wax doesn't burst into flames if you apply a match to it, but it will burn to a limited extent.
Shellac records contain various other things, filler, and carbon black for example; I think the carbon black makes it flow better in the press. Pure shellac would be too brittle to make disks from.
Shellac will disolve in alcohol; that's how you make French polish. I've seen 'modern' vinyl records being pressed; no solvent is involved, granuals of vinyl are pre-heated to form a 'biscuit' which is placed on the lower matrix in the press. I don't know if shellac records were made in the same way, or if any solvent was used, but if any alcohol was involved it would certainly have evaporated. If any remained the record would be soft and sticky. The presses which I saw were steam heated and water cooled, though I've heard that electrically heated ones also existed. They were pretty hot.
I've also seen master lacquers being cut; these were highly flammable lacquer on a netal, I think aluminium, base. The packaging was clearly labeled as being highly flammable. This was a long time ago, early '70s, I don't know if they still are.
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