1928 Congressional Medal Award To Mr. Edison - BA Cylinder

[FellowCollector]

This past Fall I asked a good friend of mine to attend an auction that featured a few lots of cylinders. One of the lots had some U-S Everlasting cylinders in it and it was this lot along with a couple of wax cylinder lots that I was most interested in. I won the lots and my friend kindly delivered them to me the following day. I didn't go through them for about a week or more as I had other projects going on. I finally found some time and decided to look through the box with the U-S Everlasting cylinders first just to see if there were any titles I did not already have in my collection. I had almost gone through the entire box of cylinders (there were two rows of them inside the box). I reached for the very last cylinder box in the bottom row and I noticed that it was in a later Edison Recording Blank cylinder box. I removed the lid hoping there would be an unused Edison Recording Blank cylinder...but...

Instead, I noticed what looked like an Edison Blue Amberol cylinder was sitting inside the box. The lighting was not good in the room I was in and so my immediate thought was "Ah rats...another common Edison Blue Amberol that someone stuck inside an Edison Recording Blank box...oh well.". But I DID notice that the plaster core was VERY WHITE versus most other Blue Amberols. So I took the box with the cylinder inside it to better lighting and pulled the cylinder out. What the heck IS this? I was stunned when I read the title on the rim "CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL AWARD TO MR. EDISON OCTOBER 20 1928". The cylinder surely looks like it was never played. I did a little online Googling and found some information on the presentation but nothing about the cylinder itself.

Anyway, does anyone else here have this cylinder? I would love to listen to the content but I also don't want to risk injury to the grooves by playing it on something that is incorrect. Ediphone?

Any comments are appreciated. I'm reasonably confident that few examples of this exist as I've never seen it for sale or in a collection but who knows? Maybe there are more around than I know about. For now I would appreciate listening to it.

Doug

[melvind]

Well I know nothing about the cylinder, but it is an pretty terrific find. I can't wait for more info on it. Congrats!

[donniej]

Congratulations on a wonderful find, Doug!!! I know nothing about the cylinder but would be happy to put you in touch with one of the few collectors who has an archival cylinder machine like CPS1, so that it could be digitized.

[TinfoilPhono]

I have only ever seen one other, and that was in the collection of Dave Heitz (who died in 2004). He considered it a great rarity.

You're very lucky!

[FellowCollector]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments thus far. It will be interesting to listen to it someday.

Doug

[phonosandradios]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments thus far. It will be interesting to listen to it someday.

Doug

If you were able to share it here some day that would be brilliant.

[Victrolacollector]

Having a resin copy of this gem would be awesome.

[rodpickett]

This may be intended for the Ediphone and not the traditional 4 minute BA reproducer.

Someone more knowledgeable may know, but caution should be exercised before playing.

[FellowCollector]

This may be intended for the Ediphone

Agreed. I would never try playing this cylinder unless I was sure that all was correct for playing it. Although I must admit it sure is tempting to listen to it. It sits inside a padded cylinder box on a shelf along with some other rare cylinders I have. An Archeophone would safely play it I'm sure.

Doug

[Shawn]

You need to contact Ken Flaherty. He's Polyphone on the forum. He's got an unbelievable set up to play and transcribe records that came from John Levin. He's a consummate artist and deals with super collectible records. He would be able to not only transcribe, but educate you. He's one of the best in the hobby at records!!!

It would be a great opportunity to hear this super rare record!!!!

Shawn