Great video, however there’s a massive error, Edison didn’t invent the lightbulb. Humphry Davy invented the first electric light, with many other bulbs being made before Edison claim ownership of the patch!
The blue cylinder shown ( Blue Amberol) is not wax but is made from celluloid, the first plaastic. Edison came out with these in 1912. They often used the molds of an earlier type of Amberol cylinder which was made of wax. This is the cylinder type shown on the video clip where the cylinder breaks. This was one reason Edison stopped using wax for the fine grooved amberols as the brittle wax which they are made of can crack simply because of differential expansion caused by the heat from your hand (this is what happened in the well known video clip shown here). I've had this experience myself! Edison preferred wax cylinders because they could be made perfectly round and stayed that way. Blue Amberols and other celluloid cylinders get slightly "out of round" with the passage of time and this shows up as wow and flutter upon playback, especially with good quality playback which can also show how well many cylinder records were recorded.
Thank God it was celluloid. He was giving me a heart attack, waving that cylinder around on his fingers. I mean, sure, why not. It's only a century old.
Actually, Edison developed unbreakable celluloid mass produced cylinders very early in Phonograph history, from memory, around 1902. Unfortunately for him a ruthless employee quit and patented the process before Edison did. The patent eventually ended up in the hand of Edisons rival Columbia 'Graphophone' (sic) company who were then able to manufacture their so called 'indestructible' cylinders in both 2 and 4-minute form. Edison had to wait until 1912, when the patent expired, before launching his 4-minute 'Blue Amberol' celluloid cylinders.
@@HMV101 Celluloid cylinders date back to the 1890s, with Henri Lioret being the first producer. Lambert was next, around 1900. Edison tried to get a patent, but was blocked by the courts: he finally had to buy out Philpott's patent.
BTW, I have been looking for some illustration or image of a cylinder factory or replication facility, and haven’t found one, just curious on how the cylinders were replicated, on the side of the “flat” records are plenty of even films showing the process.
The audio fidelity of those old recordings is actually superb for the time they were made. It's amazing how good they sound, given the primitive nature of both the recording technology and the medium the recordings were inscribed onto.
Not to be that guy, but the concept and earlier version of the phonograph, the phonautograph was invented by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857. Lightbulb goes to Humphry Davy and we can thank John Logie Baird and Paul Gottlieb Nipkow for the video camera.
edison was a guy who went patenting almost all these important stuff. but about the sound recording; the phonautograph's playback was pretty indirect and it wasn't available commercially. however; the phonograph, which was mentioned in this video, was the first commercially available sound recorder and record player.
The phonautograph was not made for playback. It was made for studying audio waves, only later did someone notice that if the paper that the waves were on were punched into grooves, it could possibly be played back.
XxHalles133769xX The movie camera is what he is talking about, being one which records onto a permanent medium. That was invented in 1887 or so by a Frenchman.
On the Shores of Italy is an incredible song. those are my thoughts also that guy was gonna say "Oh, Fuck" but he stopped himself and said shit instead... That is the definition of anxious.
I love the song. I love how pure, thoughtful, and rich music back then was. I like modern music too, but music from the early 1900s just has a unique vintage charm
These episodes just get more compelling and fascinating. Collecting great music on different formats was always my passion, but since Vinyl Eyezz, I'm even more obsessed! The tips have been more than helpful. Jarrett is an incredible presenter-I know how difficult it must be to keep coming back with even better episodes. Jarrett makes it look easy, but it really isn't. So massive respect for the continuous quality and variation of topics. I have a massive man crush! He's a guru: could watch all day!
This isn't some little known ancient technology. It's the Edison phonograph. It was insanely popular at the turn of the century. I'd like to think music enthusiasts in the U.S. and Europe knew that already.
Eh? At the turn of the century CD's were the biggest format, though Minidisc was considered to be the next big thing and this odd "all electronic" thing called MP3 was beginning to appear.
Wow I really loved the wax cylinder selections that I have heard on RU-vid they are fantastic and I think that it is one of the best representations of early music. I would sure love to get a hold of the wax cylinders and the players and selves that would be really great I am fascinated by a technology like this I just love the sound of the wax cylinder it is great.
The cylinders actually had much better sound than the early flat records. They used the "hill and dale" recording technique - the information was at the bottom of the groove and vibrated the stylus up and down. This cut out a lot surface noise. The flat records vibrated the stylus side-to-side, but there was extra wax on the bottom of the groove that caused a lot of the typical noise we associate with old 78s.
I have one of these wax cylinders...in. The cardboard tube...it says Edison Blue Amberol Record ...1532 Dixie Medley (banjo) V an Epps. Worth anything?
@Brenda Dawe It depends on both condition and title/number. I'm not sure how much that one is worth, but there are hundreds of thousands of these out there still. As most are not very rare, they can range anywhere from $5 to $500. I'm sure you could look up the title and catalog number and see what other sellers may be charging, as well.
That old guy that was nervous... damn, I feel so bad for him. He just seemed so devastated by the fact he broke a piece of history. I can't help but feel for the guy and ugh, I feel so bad
@@logenvestfold4143 most are unique since they didn’t mass produce the recordings. They could only record as many as they could fit in the room, then the wax would be reset and new ones would be recorded.
@@fr0styyproductionsmc it depends. Edison wax cylinders absolutely were massed produced. You can get a ton of them for cheap. I had two at one point. But if you had the money you could get one custom made. Or if it was one that was limited then likely few survived to the present day.
Great to see someone actually talk about this stuff! I love all music formats and my dad and I collect tons of Edison's, columbias and Victrolas. I would love to see you make a video on the earliest music formats: regina discs! We also have a few of those aswell
the cylinder you have there is a blue amberol and its not a wax cylinder its made of durable celluloid and it does not break and wear as easy as wax its a early type of plastic the same stuff as ping pong balls are made from edison itroduced the BA in 1912 to replace the very brittle wax amberols (introduced in 1908) both mediums played 4 minutes prior to that the cylinders only played 2 min the first celluloid cylinders (2 min)where made by the lambert company around 1900 edison din't get the licence to make celluloid cyl, until 1911 edison made the first commercial wax cylinders around 1890 these where made of light brown wax black wax was introduced in 1902 these cylinders where moulded from a cylindrical negative prior to that stage each and every cylinder hat to be recorded one by one thats why studio's had walls full of phonographs for recording to make as much copies of a song as possible the last edison cylinders where made in 1929 these came in the normal blue variety and in purple (purper amberols) this wasn't the end of the cylinder how ever the dictaphone co and edison made wax cylinders for dictation on dictaphones until 1949 the phonograph edison invented in 1877 didn't use wax cylinders but tinfoil witch had to be wrapped around a pre-grooved brass mandrel for recording and playback
Thank you for keeping some interest about early sound technology and wax cylinders alive! I love that you genuinely find all of this so interesting! That's awesome :D
I must say I admire your attitude towards this early recorded technology. So many of your generation would be thoroughly dismissive of it and just laugh it to scorn. A very good introductory presentation indeed. Thank you. My earliest disc dates from 1902 and I find the methods of capturing sound acoustically is a fascinating arena. By the way, my latest LP arrived today via one of your earlier videos: 9 Dead Alive. And it's still on red vinyl. Yippeee! Thank you Jarrett. Please keep your excellent presentations coming. Best wishes from England.
The fact that you can still find these antiques and play them totally astounds me . And the low tech primitive sound quality be damned .... It still plays !!!
I have actually seen one of these in a local antique shop in Portsmouth. I was rather fascinated, so the guy in the shop actually played the cylinder that was on the machine for me to hear it working, it was so cool.
I have one of these in perfect condition with quite a fun history to it! :D It was bought by my great great grandfather in 1913 after he migrated to the states from norway. He bought a lot of them, most of which he sent back to norway for the family buisness (which is still going til this day, i might become the owner once my granp passes away), but one he Kept for himself. As these machines were capable of both playing and recording on wax rolls, he would exchange Voice records istead of letters as a sort of fun, overpriced, novelty way of communicating with his friends and family in norway. Some time after the US joined the war, he fled back to norway, but left his poor phonograph behind. Today I only have one of the phonographs left, but it is in allmost perfect condition with loads of recordings, many of my great Grandma singing as a child. Sadly the needle is missing, so I can't use it! If any of you have an idea of where i can Get a replacement part it would be greatly aprecheated!(for a model C). A new recorder would allso be Nice, as the one they used got lost during ww2 :( But There are tonnes of pre-war record players in playable condition left behind from him! :D
@@floofyboi3112 were you ever able to get a replacement so you could listen to your families recordings? Tbh you should post videos about it, I'm sure so many people would be interested :)
Edison's original phonograph (1877) recorded and played back from tin foil wrapped around a metal cylinder. The wax cylinder was developed about 10 years later by Charles Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell (the latter a cousin of Alexander Graham Bell)....they called their invention the Graphophone. The wax cylinder format had another feature built in....blank cylinders were available for those with larger phonographs (with enough motor power) to record on them at home! Alternatively, worn cylinders could be shaved and recorded over several times.
That centrifugal speed governor was used in the 78 players too, and a similar setup was used in some early record players and cassette/8tracks. The design came from the old windmills used to make flour,the governor kept the millstones at the right gap to maximise flour production when the wind speed varied, and came out in the 1700's. Then the steam engines in factories used the same idea to regulate the speed of the big mill engines that drove all the other machinery through lineshafts. Early reciprocating steam dynamo engines used the same thing too. Up until not too long ago, there was the same idea in diesel engines !
Optical discs are also Phonograph technology. This would include Laserdisc, CD media, MiniDisc, etc. etc. These all have physical grooves on them, they are just read optically as opposed to physically. 'Phono' being Latin for sound, 'Graph' as Latin for 'to write' (obviously an oversimplification of both, but the gist is there)... :-) Awesome info and thank you for the work you put into these!
I think wax cylinder is underrated. Ik the sound quality can be a not treble boosted and distorted but honestly I like the overall aesthetic and for the time it was amazing.
I just picked up a wax cylinder recorded and the owner at the time and I didn't know if it worked or not, but I couldn't back down on the his price, and amazingly we plugged it it with a conversation wire and it works, amazing things can happen, mine is a 1924 model, but easy to find if needed parts
my grandfather has quite the collection of them with two players in his personal radio Meuseum. he also has over a thousand vacuum tubes ,they cover an entire wall . he has a cool collection of antique radio an television pieces.
Good to see interest in these records. For those interested, one may pick up a cylinder record and a phonograph at any well-stocked antique outlet or large antique flea market. There are also plenty for sale on online marketplaces and auctions. Finally, there is an organization called the Antique Phonograph Society that holds a few annual conventions on both sides of the U.S. You'll find dozens of phonographs and thousands of both cylinder records and 78s for sale.
@ 3:20 O,M,G!!! This recording is so clean it's hard to believe it's over 100 years old. For it to survive so long in such condition is mind blowing! Thanks for sharing! P.S. Is it me? Or does anyone else think he sounds like Desi Arnez?...
Quite a late cylinder, the shellack 78 rpm disc was usually the preferred format by 1914, but the cylinder phonographs were still popular since you could make your own recordings on them (not sure if that was the case with Blue Amberols, but with the earlier wax cylinders there were blanks available for recording). It was easier to mass produce flat discs compared to cylinders, so that's one reason why the record took over as the most commercial successful format. Very interesting video, didn't expect you to approach such an old format. Cheers. Björn
My oldest record has to be a 1912 recording "Spring Song" its a 78 shellac so its quite an early one. I love this type of thing. I also sometimes shoot with a Polaroid Camera from the 1960s one of the land models, most people are amazed at how it develops photos instantly as a print. I'm stunned as this technology as been around for decades lol.
I've NEVER heard of wax cylinders! Definitely learned something today. But definitely felt horrible for the gentleman in that clip at at the end... "There's no other one like this particular one in the world..." **CRACK!** "oh f... $#!t... OMG"
I don’t have a wax cylinder player but what I do have is a really old Victrola a wind up record player from 1926 and a bunch of 70 eights I didn’t discover 70eights up until 2018 and I learned that if he dropped one it would break I just love the sound of it it’s great.
A wax cylinder also appears in the movie Tomorrowland. It unlocks a secret room in the Eiffel Tower and brings up the Spectacle rocket, which is used to get to Tomorrowland from our dimension. That made me want to research this. It was called an Edison Tube in the movie.
Another important difference is that cylinders and Edison’s diamond discs were cut by moving the recording stylus up and down, later the Columbia-RCA and other were cut moving the stylus laterally, even today LPs are made that way. There is a way to make a lateral stereo cartridge able to play a vertical cut record by rewiring the headshell connectors.
I knew a little about wax cylinders from before as I did a project in school on how audio has been stored through the ages, but there was a lot of stuff in this video that I didn't know about. Great video Jarrett!
The video clip of the (actual) wax cylinder breaking while being handled is because what was being handled was an Edison Black wax Amberol cylinder which were made of (very hard) wax. These were made of this hard material because they were recorded at 200 grooves per inch, almost microgroove. To utilize this fine groove they had to be hard to prevent rapid groove wear. Edison black wax Amberol's are so brittle that if you hold one in your hands too long, you can hear then crackle from you body heat expanding the wax. The demonstrator in the video, held the cylinder (which already probably had beginnings of cracks from being held too long at an earlier time) a bit too long and this caused the cylinder to crack severely which was caught on video. Wax Ambeols were only produced for a short time until Edison 's company came out with the blue celluloid Amberol records in 1912.
Let us give Mr. New some credit: he makes some errors as many people have pointed out, but he is at least prepared to take a sympathetic and uncondescending interest in a kind of technology a world away from his natural habitat - and he does know the correct way to handle a cylinder (with one's fingers inside, not touching the external surface at all). Incidentally, the unfortunate man who broke his cylinder (I have done the same!) was making a perfectly fair point in what he began to say just before it happened; almost any well-preserved cylinder, from the late 1890s onward, has a technical advantage over a disc record of the same period, with less surface noise and a more clearly-defined sound. Cylinders died out because they were fragile (apart from those made of celluloid), because they took up a lot of space in proportion to their playing time, and because the player had no turntable to act as a flywheel and therefore suffered from pitch fluctuations much worse than those of a clockwork gramophone - not because the records themselves were inferior.
I must note that Irving Gillette was one of the MANY pseudonyms used by Henry Burr (whose real name was Harry McClaskey). Also, cylinders used the vertical cut recording method (aka hill-and-dale), which means the stylus goes up and down instead of side-to-side like a standard lateral cut shellac 78rpm disc. Also, Pathé also used the vertical cut recording system on their records, up until the mid 1920's, when they switched over to the lateral cut recording method. The masters for the Pathé discs were recorded on a gigantic master cylinder, which ran at a very fast speed, then dubbed (actually, pantographed) to discs and cylinders. The early Pathé discs (issued in France and Belgium) ran at a speed of 90rpm, rather than 78 or 80rpm. The Pathé discs issued in the US and UK ran at a speed of 80rpm (even the lateral cut ones run at 80rpm).
@@chadkingoffuckmountain970 Philip Reis invented the first telephone 16. October 1861 Bell wanted the world to believe he invented it 10. March 1876 so reis came over 10 years earlier than bell. Bell was only the first guy who selled phones
Wow! Excellent video. You have a really wonderful channel.The Edison Company started manufacturing a disc known as the Diamond Disc in 1913, to compete with Victor & Columbia. By then cylinders were going out of style. The machine was known as a Diamond Disc Phonograph. It was completely mechanical device that utilized a diamond stylus. (An Industry First) These phonographs were housed in cabinets of various styles. Edison utilized what is known as the "Vertical Cut Recording" technique as in the cylinder and Diamond Disc Records. This was considered superior to the lateral cut method used by the rest of the recording industry. Victor & Columbia the dominant players in the industry, utilized the Lateral Cut Recording method, which is still utilized to this day. The Edison discs spun at 80 RPM. Edison was 40 years ahead of everyone else in the recording industry during the First World War . His diamond Discs were made out of a smoother phenolic plastic (An Industry First)not shellac. The Diamond Disc Machines utilized a diamond stylus, Light weight sound box, and a feed screw mechanism that moved the tone arm across the disc. The Edison discs were not prone to the heavy wear and tear that the conventional shellac discs, utilizing disposable steel needles,& heavy tone arms, were subjected to. Actually the Edison Blue Amberol Cylinders were also made out of a similar plastic. There were much more durable and louder that the earlier wax cylinders. I have an extensive collection of Diamond Discs and a Model C-150 Edison Machine. The sound quality of these discs is incredible!! My machine was built in 1915, and it played perfectly until about a month ago. The spring motor needs to be disassembled, adjusted, cleaned & lubricated. It still works but the massive spring slips.The machine is so amazingly built and well engineered, it can easily last another 100 years. Nothing today is built like that! My apologies for the long winded response, but I really appreciate your sense of history. There are plenty of collectors who demonstrate their Diamond discs machines on You Tube. By the way, Blue Amborol cylinders were manufactured along with Diamond Discs right up to 1929, when the Edison Company totally exited from the recording industry. Probably thousand of unsold new Blue Amberol cylinders were burned as trash, after the plant was closed. How sad! But the Great Depression of was already starting. Warmest Regards, Eugene
He (Edison) first made it with an Aluminum/ Tin Foil in 1877-1880. Then, using the help of Alexander Graham Bell (The one who invented the telephone), He (Edison) used the wax cylinder instead of the Aluminum/ Tin Foil (Invented 1880-1887 (The Gramophone inventing)). Then Him (Bell) record his sound saying "Hear... My... Voice....... Alexander... Graham... Bell." Recorded on a wax disc.
HAHAHA im so glad you played that techtv clip. Its the only reason i even tried to watch this video. When i was a kid i saw that happen live on tv, it ruled.
During the Call For Help Christmas Help-a-thon. That broadcast was something like 2 days straight. Chris Pirillo, the host, nearly lost it by the end of it, it was so long. I can only imagine what that guy was like.
Another difference vs our phonograph records and vinyl is that cylinders were recorded vertically as well as the Edison Diamond disc later, our vinyl and most shellac records were recorded laterally, the needle on an Edison moves up and down, on modern records it moves side to side.
Hi from Australia! Thanks for your videos Jarrett, they're all very interesting. I have a fairly large record collection (over 3000 in fact) and have one of these Edison records I got from my grandparents. Nice to see I'm not the only gen Y to love this vintage technology! I felt sorry for the guy who dropped his record, you can really feel his dispair!
Phonograph (long O) was Edison's trade name. Gramophone was primarily used outside the U.S., the generic term was talking machine. The Amberol cylinder wasn't wax it was an early form of plastic on a plaster core-they did not suffer from mold.
Hey actually just got one of these and a ton of cylinder records! Turns out there's two different kinds! Mines a 4 minute player and there's also a 2 minute player as well. Most 4 minute players play blue wax like yours and most black wax cylinders are 2 minute records. Thanks for the great video!
Also must mention that those blue amberol records are much more durable and won't actually break like the one near the end of the video, that was a black wax cylinder and they were made from a sort of silver soap material that was much more breakable, luckily they improved on it to make blue wax cylinders which were almost like plastic but they do have a very brittle concrete inside. That's why I would actually reccomend holding the outer edges near the ends rather than the inside so the concrete doesn't crumble. I'm no expert but I don't want you to damage your record! Again thank you so much for all the fun and informative videos! :D
I didn’t know at the time but when I was a kid, we had HUNDREDS of these everywhere in our barn. We used to throw them at each other just because. They are absolutely no where near as fragile as depicted. You may hurt the sound quality (I wouldn’t know, we didn’t even know what they were then), but they wouldn’t shatter like that.
It's funny to hear one that's got a really used needle, it will play two or three groves worth of music at the same time and it's can be funny or it can sound like a demon. All in all I really enjoy my family's victrola, made Nov 9, 1916, and mechanically speaking it's still working like a charm.
The earlier wax cylinder records were not mass reproduced. Each record was recorded live which makes the earliest recordings unique. Later an attempt to copy audio from player to recording lathe using a rubber tube to connect the two was tried but obviously the quality of sound suffered. Then in 1902 Edison developed the Edison Gold Molded Record. This enabled cylinder records to be mass produced using a mold from the master which had a thin gold lining. Also, earlier wax cylinders had a very short playback life of around 100 plays.
Oh cool! I own a wax cylinder like that! I just have no idea where I could get the right thing to play it ;-; It's still intact inside the packaging with the lid, now that I know this about it, I don't let anyone touch it
Some day I'll have a cylinder player but until then I have a Brunswick gramophone player made in 1921 that is still pretty cool even though it will only play 78 discs although it will play both the Columbia and pathe style discs. YOU may not have known that wax cylinders existed but most of the world does.
Actually I found two audio files of two old songs by Chester Gaylord titled. loves old sweet song. The cylinder version was in 1921 and the Edison diamond disc version was in 1920.
Copyright is not covered forever, on this old songs it doesn't exist. Same for any media. I think it covers the media for few 50-60 year after which it is public domain. Just checked copyright is 70 or 95 years for older works. "the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years."
Yes, cylinder records were the first media. The first recording ,however, was recorded on a tin foil cylinder phonograph in December 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison. A 10 second recording of "Mary had a Little Lamb".
Damn Jarrett! i thought the transcription disc video was impressive But you really knocked this one out the park. I don't think ive seen a better video on wax cylinders. keep up the good work
They were introduced in 1889 and they were on the market until 1929 when Thomas Edison company collapsed. They still sell them from Vulcan cylinders and they go up to £90.00. The also had vertically cut grooves.
Nice presentation young fellow. (I'm now 77😣) Hope you don't mind me pointing out a couple of mistakes however. Too bad - I'm going to anyway😉 That 'wax' cylinder you have is not at all fragile, you can probably drop it or certainly hold it as tight as you wish without harm. What's more they never develop surface mould. What's more - they are not 'wax'. By definition a Blue Amberol cylinder is unbreakable celluloid recording on a plaster-of-paris base. They are grooved 200 to the inch and play up to four-minutes at 160rpm. Before the Blue Amberol (first introduced in 1912), there were black wax VERY fragile, four-minute Amberol cylinder. Prior to its introduction in 1908, there were the black wax two-minute cylinders with only 100 groves to the inch. This is the variety of cylinder that smashed so readily during that TV clip. The very earliest commercial Edison cylinders (1888 - 1905),were brown and played for about 2.5-minutes at 144rpm. These however were not mass produced (moulded); each being a 'one off' original. They are nowadays quite rare and, like the later mass produced black records, very often found covered in mould and/or broken😥.
The cylinder you are holding is not wax! It is made of a plastic called Celluloid! The same material film is made of! I have 2 copies on cylinders of the same record you have! Also, you mentioned the cylinder doesn't have any mold! Yes! That's right! No mold! That's because it is not wax! The cylinders thought to be wax actually isn't wax! They were made of a soap lead compound! The soap in the cylinder felt like wax!
