Page 1 of 6

Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 5:19 pm
by PeterF
The Columbia "20th Century" 6" long 3-minute cylinder records weren't made for very long, and are prone to mold, and thus hard to come by - and expensive.

Those of us lucky enough to own Columbia graphophones with the long mandrels are usually therefore unable to easily demonstrate them. And, as is the case with other rare and delicate records, even when we have a good record to play, we might not want to do so very often.

I've gotten in touch with Norman Bruderhofer, who makes new cylinders that are essentially indestructible, and he says he can make new 6-inchers, but needs to make and sell a minimum of 10 to break even financially. I've asked for an estimated per-unit cost on such a cylinder, and for the particulars of how a selection is transferred to cylinder (acoustic from original hard media, or digital?).

In the meantime, do you think you'd want to be one of the 10, with me, to commit to buy one of these? I'm thinking we could get consensus on some extra special content so that the resulting record would be worth listening to frequently...I don't think it's necessary to stick with content from an original 20th Century record, which in my experience are mostly pretty boring.

Your thoughts?

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 5:28 pm
by Steve Levi
I'd be game. 8 more to go. Steve

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 8:48 pm
by billybob62
If they could be played on an Edison cylinder player, I, too, would be interested. Thanks.

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 8:50 pm
by PeterF
Well they are indeed 6" long. So the first two minutes or so will play on Edison phonos with no end gate, but that's not much fun.

You can read about them here:

http://www.capsnews.org/apn2011-1.htm

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 10:45 pm
by Lucius1958
I'd be interested - hope there are some good titles to copy!

Bill

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 11:14 pm
by Phonofreak
If the price is right, I'd be interested in one.
Harvey Kravitz

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 3:06 am
by billybob62
So, an Edison will play on a Columbia but a Columbia not on an Edison unless Noman would put the music on a standard Edison sized cylinder.
Pity.Thanks anyway :D

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 10:32 am
by edisonplayer
The extra length made the 20th Century cylinders awkward to handle.My friend Arthur Pare saw one in an antique shop many years ago.It was Arthur Collins singing "The Preacher and The Bear".Sadly,it was cracked.Edison's answer to a longer playing cylinder was to come up with the 4 minute Amberol.edisonplayer

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 1:09 pm
by PeterF
I got a response from Norman - the new BC cylinders will run about $90 each, which is pretty great considering that an original will cost more and sound worse and be far less durable.

He's also given me the details of how to get the musical content to him, so if anyone has a suggestion of an excellent number with a duration of about 3 minutes, please post the info, or a link if it's available online.

Rather than keep duplicate threads going in this section as well as in the "Yankee Trader" section, I'll keep updating this thread from now on. The next steps are to finish gathering subscribers and pick the musical selection.

Re: Columbia 20th Century 6'' long 3-minute cylinder records

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 1:10 pm
by PeterF
billybob62 wrote:So, an Edison will play on a Columbia but a Columbia not on an Edison unless Noman would put the music on a standard Edison sized cylinder.
Pity.Thanks anyway :D
Well Norman and others also offer standard sized new cylinders, but this effort is all about the oddball long ones.