Wax cylinder

A wax cylinder was one of the first methods of sound recording and playback again. Wax cylinders were widely produced and used from about 1888 to 1915 after which therecord was the most important medium to record sound and play. In its most simple form a wax cylinder is a cylinder which contains on the outside grooves which contain the audio recording. A wax cylinder can be played on a phonograph .

Content

 * 1 History
 * 2 Packs
 * 3 The end of the wax cylinder
 * 4 External link

History
The first phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison on July 18th 1877 for the recording of telephone conversations . His first test he did with paper dipped in wax. Another material that he used was aluminum foil coiled around a cylinder. Around 1880 wax cylinders were first commercially available. The grooves were in soft wax around a cardboard cylinder. Through the soft material this wax cylinders were usually worn after playing a few times. The owner could then then trade them so they could buy at a discount with new ones, or they could be sanded so that new recordings could be made.

In 1890 patented Charles Sumner Tainter a new type of wax cylinder, where he carnauba wax used in place of the mixture of paraffin and beeswax which was common until then. The wax was increasingly improved over the years so that they could eventually be played more than 100 times. In 1902 Edison Records launched a line of hard wax cylinders under the name "Edison Gold Moudled Records.

The early phonographs from the period 1880-1890 were often sold with equipment to also recordings to make. The ability to play both as wax cylinders to include was a major advantage over the cheaper turntables that came at the end of the nineteenth century on the market, and could play only sound that was recorded.

The former wax cylinders were not all compatible with each other. A standard size was agreed by Edison Records , Columbia Phonograph and a number of other companies at the end of the eighties of the 19th century. These cylinders were 10 cm long, about 6.4 cm in diameter and were about two minutes to contain sound.

[Packaging edit ]
Thomas Edison with his phonograph

Wax cylinders were often packaged in cardboard rolls in order to protect the wax roll. About these "boxes" and "tinny" sound of the wax cylinders made ​​include John Philip Sousa contain slip that the wax cylinders' canned sound. "

The package contained in the early days often just a label from the manufacturer, and little information about what really was on the wax cylinder. Later, more and more information on the package and allow the wax cylinder itself. Many wax cylinders, however, had quite often a harbinger of what was on the wax cylinder at the beginning of the recording.

[The end of the wax cylinder edit ]
Around 1910 the wax cylinder began to lose the competition of the record. This was mainly due to the fact that records were cheaper to produce and easier to store than were on wax cylinders. Often was the promotion and marketing of records better. The advantages of wax cylinders, often including the higher sound quality, longer shelf life and especially the fact that there are also recordings were with were not enough to be commercially interesting. The only application that wax cylinders thus far had been important for dictaphone -like applications to around years fifties and sixties of the twentieth century it was also adopted by other (mainly magnetic based) media.