Early shellac rationing stuff:

“Phonograph Record Output Ordered Cut 70 Per Cent
By the Associated Press
The War Production Board issued orders today forcing an immediate 70 per cent reduction in the manufacture of phonograph records and radio transcriptions.

The curtailment was accomplished by reducing the amount of shellac available to producers to 30 per cent of the amount used last year.

Shellac is a necessity in record manufacture, a W.P.B. spokesman explained, and the record industry normally uses about one-third of the Nation's annual shellac consumption.

Experiments were being pushed, it was said, to find a suitable substitute and reclaiming of old records probably will be attempted.

The board directed industries using shellac, except record manufacturers, to reduce their consumption 25 per cent below last year's levels between now and June 30, and curtail 65 per cent thereafter.

India is virtually the sole source of this country's supplies of shellac, W.P.B. pointed out, and imports are subject to shipping hazards.

Exceptions from the restriction order included electrical equipment, coating for munitions, military explosives, navigational and scientific instruments, communication instruments and marine paints for vessels other than pleasure craft.”
[The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., 14 April 1942, p.1]