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----- Original Message ----- From: "Colin Schlachta" <[log in to unmask]> > I am in the process of transferring audio from wax cylinder to audio CD, and > every now and then I come across series of cylinders in our collection with > a kind of growth on the surface. It fills up the grooves and distorts the > recordings. Some of the cylinders are so badly infected that they cannot be > played at all. It appears to be a like a kind of fungus, but I am not sure. > Has anyone come across this problem and come up with a non-destructive > cleaning process? > As I understand it (and I will admit to a lack of expertise), this is actually a fungal growth, and it actually eats the wax substance that composes the recording, thus making the damaged cylinder at best noisy and at worst unplayable. Extreme manifestations of this can be seen on wax cylinders sold at flea markets and similar sources whose original owners stored them in warm, damp places, encouraging fungal growth. The fungus can be removed, but the wax it has eaten cannot be restored (that I am aware of, anyway) so that mold-damaged cylinders are basically unsalvageable. It is still being debated whether shellac, also being an organic substance, can be affected by a similar phenomenon. Steven C. Barr