Science: Durium Records

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On news stands in Springfield, Mass., and Hartford, Conn., last week, there appeared for sale an article which set many a passer-by to wondering. It was a phonograph record, not black but brown; no thicker, scarcely any heavier, than a stiff piece of paper; and it bore the name of an unknown corporation called Durium Products.

Durium is the recent invention of Dr. Hal Trueman Beans, Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. It is a synthetic resin, somewhat like bakelite. In its original form it is a liquid composition the color of varnish which when exposed to heat becomes so solid that dropping or mild whacks will do it no harm. Like varnish too it can be spread with a brush but there the resemblance stops. Durium hardens so quickly that phonograph records, which are pressed from metal disks, can be stamped on it with the speed of a printing press. The manufacture of records is the first commercial use to which durium has been put, and so cheaply was it accomplished that first ones were offered at 15¢ apiece.

It was the 15¢ and the results which might be involved in records' selling at such a price that caused the wonderment last week. Thinner in tone than most 75-cent records, they are vastly superior to cheap ones hitherto issued. They will play many times without sounding worn. They can be dropped without disaster. A new Durium record will be issued each week, one played by a leading Broadway orchestra and chosen as "hit of the week" by a jury composed of Producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Comedian Eddie Cantor and Bandman Vincent Lopez.