Here's a very rare Durium miniature flexible 78 rpm record issued in the early 1930's advertising its Junior series\" A Message to the Young Folks from Uncle Tom\" . Played the authentic way on my beloved HMV 102 Wind Up Gramophone.
The Durium Record Company wsa based at 107, Buckingham Avenue, Slough, England. The company ceased trading in early 1934. It was taken over (or became) Dubrico Ltd, still in Slough, but then was bought by Sound Distributors Ltd of London. By this time the production of 10\" commercial records had ceased and the company only made special, mainly advertising, issues in various small sizes from 3\" to 6\" in diameter until 1936 when it would appear that records made of Durium went out of fashion.
Durium was a syntheitc resin invented in 1929 by Dr. Hal Trueman Beans, who was professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, USA. It is decribed as flexible, tasteless, odourless amd highly resistent to heat. It is surprising the material isn't better known as one would have thought it would have had many uses at the time, or even nowadays. I believe it was used in casting metal newspaper type and for non-metallic parts in aeroplanes.
How the records were manufactured.
The hot liquid resin (at about 230 centigrade) was spread over wide sheets of thin cardboard and immediately 12 records were simultaneously pressed. The resin cooled and hardened very quickly at which point the details are printed onto the central area of the records and the backs are printed (if necessary) and lacquered, allegedly to stop curling, though they still usually end up being quite curled. Finally the discs are punched out. The process was very quick and many records could be made in a short time, though it is not known what the pressing runs were for each weekly issue.
Playing a Durium record.
At first glance, Durium records appear unplayable. They are invariably very curled. This is due to the different expansion rates of the carboard and the Durium resin. Each record came with a Durium record clip to hold it flat onto the turntable. These are quite scarce nowadays, but a substitute can be made quite easily. Once the record is held flat, it will play fine. The hard Durium material will cope very well with the heavy soundbox and steel needle of a gramophone, though I would never recommend using an old gramophone in preference to a modern light-weight pick-up and diamond stylus for playing records. Duriums have no problem with the fatal warpage caused by shrinking which is common with other flexible records such as Filmophone, Phonychord and Goodson.
Check out Michael Thomas's excellent website for more on the subject.
