"New" Edison Blue Amberol - St. Louis Blues

[tarheeltinkerer]

[edisonphonoworks]

I purchased one of these new Blue Amberols for historical reasons. Most of surviving B.A. molds have minor defects, but this one plays good dispite a small oxidization spot, that you do not even notice during playback. Most of the surviving B.A. molds, were damaged ones, that workers took home. Maybe I am missing the mark but it seems there are so few original cylinder molds that exsist, and only the outer galvano, and backup shell . There are some molds for blanks at Donley's but I am not shure if they are from the factory, they do not have spiral cores, but rather smooth ones, I think they were machined by Clarence Furguson, one has a handle made from a fire extiquisher. He certainly worked at the Edison Works for many years, so I am sure they are based on actual molds he worked with, they work, Chuck made a duplicate of the blank mold, and it makes beautiful castings. There are a few original Blue Amberol molds there too. Of course Gold Molded records you are not going to find the core, or base, They were put in a felt lined split brass jacket, that fit over the gavano, and had two rings on either end. The Blue Amberol molds, are a steel shell with the galvano inside, there would be no core either, as they were pressed to the side of the mold, which was steam heated and a rubber bladder inside that pressed the records, there was a hatch to take the print out.