Chart: Blue Amberol release year by record number

[52089]

I put this together for my own use a while ago and thought I'd share. Note: in some years, particularly from 1923-1929, there is some overlap in numbers from one year to the next, so dates may be approximate. I have similar charts for Edison 2M and 4M wax and Diamond Disc and will post on request.

Blue Amberol release year by record number
Lower Upper Year
1501 1610 1912
1611 2114 1913
2115 2483 1914
2484 2774 1915
2775 3036 1916
3037 3357 1917
3358 3621 1918
3622 3883 1919
3884 4144 1920
4145 4402 1921
4403 4645 1922
4646 4808 1923
4802 4934 1924
4935 5084 1925
5085 5258 1926
5259 5443 1927
5444 5637 1928
5638 5719 1929

[alang]

Thanks for sharing this information. I would definitely be interested in similar information about Edison 2m and 4m wax and DD if you are willing to share it.
Thanks again
Andreas

[flashpanblue]

Hello,
I have a couple of Blue Amberol cylinders with numbers as follows #23340 and #23278. What year would they have been made?
thanks
Pete

[52089]

Hello,
I have a couple of Blue Amberol cylinders with numbers as follows #23340 and #23278. What year would they have been made?
thanks
Pete

The 23000 series is the British popular series. Unfortunately I do not have release data for these. Perhaps one of our British friends could help?

[Valecnik]

Interesting. So number of releases peaked in 1913 at just over 500, quickly dropped to 200-300 or so until 1929 with less than a hundred.

[kirtley2012]

i generaly use this archive to find out the date of cylinders, there are few they do not have!

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php

[52089]

Interesting. So number of releases peaked in 1913 at just over 500, quickly dropped to 200-300 or so until 1929 with less than a hundred.

Yes, by 1923 it was less than 200 new titles a year. There are a handful of unreleased numbers in there too, but that shouldn't seriously affect the count.

One note is that the 1913 total includes the 60 or so school cylinders that never turn up anywhere.

[NEFaurora]

Great chart for the BA'a

Can you post the DD and Amberol wax charts as well?

Thanks,

Tony K.

[epigramophone]

Hello,
I have a couple of Blue Amberol cylinders with numbers as follows #23340 and #23278. What year would they have been made?
thanks
Pete

The 23000 series is the British popular series. Unfortunately I do not have release data for these. Perhaps one of our British friends could help?

The British Series Blue Amberols can be dated as follows, with one or two possible overlaps :

23001 to 23180 : 1913
23181 to 23345 : 1914
23346 to 23403 : 1915

In October 1915 the exigencies of wartime led the British government to impose a tax on all imported talking machines and records, followed by a total ban on such imports from March 1916.
As all Blue Amberols were manufactured in the USA, irrespective of where they were recorded, no further supplies reached Britain for several years.
In June 1919 the import restrictions were lifted, but the tax on imports remained.
British Series Blue Amberols continued to be obtainable to special order, but there were no new releases. The First World War brought Edison's European recording operations to a halt, and they were never resumed.