Restoring Cylinder Recordings

Jeff Karpinski talks about how to restore and care for 78 rpm records. Now, for those of you who may collect early jazz, vocals, bands, etc., on cylinders, I thought I'd give some easy restoration tips to make listening to cylinders a more pleasant experience.


In this discussion, let's just go into the Edison blue amberol four-minute cylinders that were celluloid in various shades of blue from very light to almost black. The core was comprised of plaster of Paris.


The rotating speed of records and many cylinders was 160 revolutions per minute (rpm's). Two common problems were mold and dirt. While mold quickly destroys the earlier two-minute wax cylinders, it takes mold longer to damage celluloid cylinders. Many times cleaning will restore celluloid cylinders to nearly new condition.

Here is the procedure I use:

I add a mild dish detergent to a bowl of lukewarm water. Never put a cylinder directly under the water as you could easily destroy the plaster of Paris core. Never allow that core to get wet at all unless you are doing a plaster repair. I use soft paper towels. I get one paper towel wet. I wring it out real good. I then put several drops of the dish detergent on the towel.

Hold the cylinder from the inside with your index and middle fingers of your unused hand. Gently but firmly take the wet towel in your other hand. Wipe the cylinder across the grooves in a circular pattern several times.

After you finish this, use the non-soapy side of the wet towel to remove as much of the soap as you can. Dry the cylinder with the dry towel, gently polishing the record in a circular pattern. This should make the surface much cleaner.

Another problem with cylinders is warping, usually a combination of the plaster warping and the celluloid shrinking. If you see cracks in the celluloid on either or both ends, the best thing to do is to insert a tiny bit into an electric drill such as a Dremel motor tool with speed control. Drill at a slow speed, because you don't want to overheat the celluloid, which is highly flammable. Drill two or three very small holes through the celluloid, not the plaster. Or, use a razor blade to create another open groove in the edge. This relieves some of the pressure on the shrinking celluloid.

If the plaster is warped, you can do it in one of two ways. Personally, I use a light grade of sandpaper, and, in a circular motion, lightly sand only the high spots of the plaster. You will need to eyeball it, checking it several times. What you are looking for is a one-inch gap between the edge of the cylinder with the title and the end of the mandrel, the tapered metal cylindrical part on the machine. All cores of cylinders had a matching taper when produced at the factories so records would fit properly.

The other thing you want is to get the record as straight as you can all the way across to cut down on record bouncing, which produces terrible sounding music.

If you are nervous about following these steps, experiment on junk cylinders. The other way, which doesn't work as well, is to purchase a record reamer from one of the cylinder phonograph parts dealers.

I hope this helps you to enjoy your cylinder recordings better.

Bill Cahill
St. Petersburg, Florida
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Moderator's Note
Cylinders were the precursor of flat disk records, used in the early 1900's to record sound on the original Edison phonographs.

Until Bill submitted this entry for The Palomar a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know anyone still used them. At first, I rejected Bill's entry, thinking The Palomar was not the place for it. Then I did some online research. Sure enough, others share Bill's enthusiasm for restoring cylinders. Moreover, Bill correctly pointed out that Jeff Karpinski had just submitted a piece to The Palomar on restoring 78s, of which I have many. I realized I was wrong, so I apologized to Bill and asked him to resubmit his article. He did so today (December 20, 2007). I have placed it above Jeff's article on restoring 78s because I think they go together.

Here are a few links about restoring cylinder recordings that complement what Bill has written above:

A Doorway in Time   by Piney Kesting
Digging Up Sound   by Eva Ciabattoni
Exhibitions of Sound: The digital preservation of music   by Mathew Honan
Helping Memories Last a Lifetime   by Precision Audio Restoration
Restoring Old Records - How it's done   by Windyridge Music Hall CDs

George Spink
Moderator - The Palomar
Los Angeles, California
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