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(above) A: The Alpine Milkman
Wilf Carter 78rpm record Decca 29671
(below) B: There's a Tree on Every Road

Library stock number A096

At the bottom of the B label image (above) can be seen
a faint reflection of the camera that took this picture.
(Photographers are familiar with the problem of
taking a picture of an object with a shiny surface.)

In the A label image (above), there are several prominent black marks plainly visible to the upper left of the spindle hole. Similar marks are often seen around the spindle holes of used 78rpm records. These marks were made when someone was trying to place this record  on a turntable, and was having difficulty getting the record centered on the table. To place the record on the turntable, the hole in the record had to be accurately aligned with the spindle. You held the record by the edges above the turntable, then lowered it onto the turntable. As you did this the record would hide the spindle from your view. You had to line up the hole (plainly visible) with the spindle (not visible). The hole in the record was much too small for you to look through it to locate the spindle. Occasionally you would get lucky and the hole in the record would line up with the spindle, and the record would settle onto the turntable surface. However, it usually happened that the hole would not find the spindle on the first try. When this happened, the spindle would hold the record slightly above the turntable. Then you had to slide the record around while pressing it down on the spindle, expecting that sooner or later you would, more or less by chance, move the record to a position that placed the hole above the spindle. It was at this time that these marks were made on the record label. As you moved the record left, right, forward, back, to find the invisible spindle, the spindle was pressing on the underside label, making these characteristic random marks. Such marks are often present on 78rpm record labels, but most of the time they are not readily visible. Usually the downward pressure on the record was moderate and the marks on the underside label were not prominent. However, sometimes the person putting the record on the table was impatient, and pressed downward more strongly than usual. If the occasion was a party, the person might be somewhat under the influence with impaired reflexes, and the downward pressure placed on the record might be stronger than usual – at such times the impaired reflexes of the record changer would tend to make the search for the spindle more prolonged and more frustrating with increased downward pressure the usual but unhelpful result. Under these circumstances there was often less-than-adequate light, which aggravated the difficulty of aligning the record hole with the elusive spindle. Whatever the circumstances, these random-appearing marks around the spindle hole are often seen on surviving 78rpm records. Once made, they are permanent. Similar marks are sometimes seen on 33rpm records. They were made in the same way, while trying to align the hole with the spindle. 45rpm records do not have these marks.

Compo Company

The Compo Company was founded in Lachine, Quebec, late in 1918 by Herbert S. Berliner, then vice-president and general manager of the Berliner Gram-O-Phone Company. Compo operated the first independent Canadian disc-pressing plant. Only two Canadian record companies survived the 1929-1939 economic crash and depression – RCA Victor of Canada and Compo.

In 1950 Herbert Berliner sold Compo to Decca(US). Decca sold it to MCA Records in 1963. The Compo labels remained on the market until 1971. The Lachine pressing plant ceased production in the early 1970s.

The Compo Company by Steven C. Barr
Compo Company Limited The Virtual Gramophone
Compo Company Archive at the National Library of Canada

Home   Lighthouse   Wilf Carter   Wilf Carter's Records   About FHS
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