<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Phonograph cylinders are the oldest commercially available recording media and are an valuable part of cultural institutions’ collections. Even though they are an essential part of sound history, they have long been overlooked as a relatively chemically stable media. The only degradation mentioned in the literature was a whitish cover, traditionally appointed to microbiological growth. In our study, we focused on unravelling the issue of these degradation products. A selected collection from the National Museum – Czech Museum of Music was subjected to microbiological and analytical examination via digital microscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, colourimetry and SEM-EDS analysis. From the results, some of the degradation pathways were proposed. The results also help us to focus future research and suppress the degradation so that the cylinders stay longer in conditions fit for digitisation and overall archivation.</p>
</abstract>

Phonograph cylinders are the oldest commercially available recording media and are an valuable part of cultural institutions’ collections. Even though they are an essential part of sound history, they have long been overlooked as a relatively chemically stable media. The only degradation mentioned in the literature was a whitish cover, traditionally appointed to microbiological growth. In our study, we focused on unravelling the issue of these degradation products. A selected collection from the National Museum – Czech Museum of Music was subjected to microbiological and analytical examination via digital microscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, colourimetry and SEM-EDS analysis. From the results, some of the degradation pathways were proposed. The results also help us to focus future research and suppress the degradation so that the cylinders stay longer in conditions fit for digitisation and overall archivation.

Degradation marks of phonograph cylinders from Tesař’s opera collection

Department of Chemical Technology of Monument Conservation

Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology

KOM – Corrosion and Material Protection Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Degradation marks of phonograph cylinders from Tesař\u2019s opera collection"}

Phonograph cylinders are the oldest commercially available recording media and are an valuable part of cultural institutions’ collections. Even though they are...

Degradation marks of phonograph cylinders from Tesař’s opera collection

Published Online: Feb 10, 2023

Page range: 150 - 159

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/kom-2022-0020

© 2022 Barbora Mašek Benetková et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.