Description
This article is from the Antique Radios
And Phonographs FAQ, by Hank van Cleef vancleef@netcom with
numerous contributions by others.
31 Are all phonograph cyliders the same?
Not all
phonograph cylinders are the same. The cylinder was the
original format for recording. The most commonly found
ones today are Edison's black wax (Gold Moulded) cylinders.
These play for 2 minutes. Columbia made 2-minute cylinders
wax cylinders until 1902, then switched to making their
cylinders out of celluloid. The celluloid cylinders are often
found today in excellent condition compared to their wax
counterparts.
Later everyone switched to 4-minute cylinders. Edison
always offered kits to upgrade his players. The
4-minute cylinders turned at 160RPM (as did most 2-minute
cylinders) and had 200 grooves per inch.
Edison produced 4-minute wax cylinders and later 4-minute
blue celluloid cylinders. The blue cylinders (called Blue
Amberols) were launched in 1912 and were made until 1929,
long after everyone else quit making them.
I have just found a phonograph in a brown case. When
as it made?
If the phonograph has a large external horn, it was made
before about 1912. After that, the ladies wanted horns inside
a case, hidden from view. If the unit you are looking at has
an enclosed soundbox in a pice of furniture, it was made
from 1910 or so up until the end of the wind up era about
1930. Not many phonographs were made from 1929-1945. The
depression caused a collapse of sales, with one authority
claiming that record sales declined by 90% during the 1930s.
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