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I found a couple of Pathé Stentor cylinders as a curiosity. These cylinders were the equivalent of the Edison Concert, with about the same diameter (12.5 cm, approximately 5 inches) being the widest commercially issued cylinders. Pathé made even larger cylinders that look like cutouts of sewage pipes, but these were used as as masters in the pantographic reproduction and were not sold to the public. Unfortunately I do not have the means to play these stentors - these cylinders are rare, but the machine to play them, the Pathé Celeste, is even rarer: there is one at the Phono Galerie (a huge beast), and that's about it.

No, not Celeste - Celeste cylinders are more than 2x longer and RARE! Stentor cylinders are used on a Pathé 4

As sidewinder noted, your Stentors are not Céleste cylinders. Those are vastly larger. Yours are Pathé's equivalent to Edison Concert and Columbia Grand records, but made in black rather than brown wax. They are scarcer than their US counterparts but nowhere near as rare as Céleste.

Here are a couple of pictures of the two different Stentors at Jalal Aro's Phonomuseum in Paris.

TinfoilPhono wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2023 9:14 am As sidewinder noted, your Stentors are not Céleste cylinders. Those are vastly larger. Yours are Pathé's equivalent to Edison Concert and Columbia Grand records, but made in black rather than brown wax. They are scarcer than their US counterparts but nowhere near as rare as Céleste.

Thanks for the correction! I mixed up the machines. I remember seeing the Celeste machine about fifteen years ago, but I did not realize the difference in cylinder sizes. In any case, Stentor cylinders are quite rare, these are the first I have seen for sale in decades. Celeste cylinders must be almost non existent today.