Converation sparked off a line of enquiry in my head...what exactly were those old heavy 78's made with?
I was thinking it was Bakelite but Googled it to check. Turns out it was Shellac...and:

"...During the early years of World War II, the War Production Board ordered a 70 percent cut in the production of new phonograph records. Record production consumed about 30 percent of the nation’s supply of shellac, a resin desperately needed by the armed forces. Shellac was used in the making of signal flares and explosives, and it was applied as a coating on artillery shells."

So...a campaign was started to recycle old shellac records "...urging people to donate their cracked, broken and worn out dance records so the materials in the discs could be recycled."

Photos here:


https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/thedigs/2013/11/18/breaking-records-for-the-war-effort/


As a second aside anyone who has used Shellac as a varnish will know that quite fascinatingly it's made from the secreted resin from the Shellac Bug or Beetle...

I thought surely not....but it's true: I checked the Beatles output and indeed they were also produced in the 78 format...in Shellac!!

- The Early Beatles were made... on Beatles!!

Who knew?