Speaking tube

[rgordon939]

Picked up this speaking tube at the Wayne show. Been looking for one for about a year. This one cleaned up very nice. Still looking for a horn crane.

Rich Gordon

[edisonphonoworks]

That is a very nice business machine, this is the machine that would benefit the most from my new dictation machine blanks.

I have a question, does any of you have documentation on the recycling program for the dictation cylinders, was there a collection program for the shavings? If so then I have been pondering, ok so Edison or Dictaphone has a program where shavings were collected and shipped back to the factories. What is to say that a place that was supposed to only use Ediphone cylinders, and they then maybe got short, and went and obtained some Dictaphone cylinders, or vise-versa. I know for certain, that the Edison formula calls for "Scrap wax" Then the question did they indeed recycle the shavings into new cylinders, or just collect it to dispose of. If they indeed collected the wax shavings and used them, then that means there really is no exact formula for those Ediphone or Dictaphone cylinders, that would mean that about half of the wax used to make the cylinders would be from formula wax, that is wax that did not have recycled bits, like shavings, defective records trimmed ends. The Edison Ediphone formula then calls when making the final batch for use, to add how ever much "scrap" wax that was around, and ok this scrap wax could very likely contain Standard, Dictaphone,Ediphone, and other brands of shavings. This would mean there could be a chance that all dictation cylinders could contain both aluminum and lead based wax...... Just a pondering from someone who knows a thing or two about making wax.....

[rgordon939]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I would be interested in your brown wax blanks. I think my machine is amazing. It works great also. I have a few original brown wax cylinders but would like a few new ones also. Let me know if they are available..

There was a chip collection bag on eBay a while back. Here is what the description was and a picture. The item number was 330870239622.

This is a very rare original piece of Thomas Edison history. Paper bag taken from 1919 dictaphone. Bag was used to discard the old wax from the dictaphone wax roll recordings. This is probably one of the first times recycling was used. Basically an antique "green" bag. Beautiful print. Bag is in very good condition and never used. Top of bag is missing a small piece of the paper but in no way effects the graphics/printing. Bage measures 21" long by 7 ¾" wide. Tiny letters reads Form number 3178-2M-9-18 which is the date the bag was made. View pictures carefully. This piece is guaranteed original and not a repro. There was also a receipt in the bottom of the dictaphone which stated it was from 1919. How many of these have you seen? Great for a collector. Any questions, please ask. Good luck bidding.

Rich Gordon

[edisonphonoworks]

Wow that is a very interesting piece. Note that it says Silver Lake, that is where the wax for Edison blanks was made, even back in the early 1890s. The wax process in the early years was away from where the records were moulded, although for awhile wax was made near the plating department at West Orange, most of it was in Silver Lake. It says clean Edison wax, but how would one know? I am sure most are


I have never heard of, or seen any photographs of wax being made for cylinders. Only moulding the records, such as the series of production from 1900 that shows men around a circular table, and the molds being filled and cores removed, the photos of this I have seen are of very poor quality so that no real details you know they are molding records, and that is about it, you can kind of make out that one man is filling the molds from a large teapot type can, and another is removing cores, and some of the mold tubes accumulating on a table. The shaving room, shows, ladies at the shaving tables, and young men carrying stacks of blanks on pegboards, (I would hate to trip and fall!), you do not however see the actual shaving and ending machines. yes there was a machine that reamed the inside of the blanks, another machine had knives that formed the ends of the blank, and then went to a rough shaver, and then to finishing shavers. I have the Ediphone production notes from 1943, and it discusses making the wax, the formula, it is made in a large cast iron kettles heated by coal, or oil burners, the wax was then filtered and then is poured into pans and the wax stacked, in 50lb slabs. The formula wax was melted and scrap wax was added, and then paraffin, #503 filter aid. The wax went trough closed agitating tanks and then was put in smaller aluminum kettles,with hoods over them to keep out dust and an aluminum can with 2 pouring spout filled the molds, these went at a rate slightly faster than you could pour the wax on a moulding table in, the records came out at 200 degrees, then cooled for 2 hours, they would finish 1 record out of 63 blanks, and then then seasoned them forfor 30 days, and were finished up. There was an edging machine, a reaming machine, rough and fine shaving machines. The letters were made with a coil heated die, and then the letters filled with Zinc Carbonate.

[rgordon939]

I have a 1905 Edison Shaver that I use for shaving cylinders. It in in fantastic shave and does a fantastic job of shaving cylinders. The sapphire cutter is in like new condition. You can see it in action by looking me up (rgordon939) on YouTube. I will also attach a picture of it. By the way, are your cylinders available foe purchase?

Rich Gordon

[edisonphonoworks]

I should have so of the dictation cylinders finished by the end of may. They will be available for those who have early business machines, the later model Ediphone machines need a different interior, to make sure they will center on the ejectomatic, but the solid business machine mandrel is the same as my shaver mandrel so they will work great on.

[shavergirl]

I shave cylinders, when they are new and fresh from the mold, and it takes 30 min per cylinder.

[rgordon939]

Just curious why it takes 30 minutes to shave a cylinder? Do they need that many passes or is there some other reason? Would like to know.

Rich Gordon

[Chuck]

Thank you ShaverGirl for posting your picture
of you while you are working!

I think I know why it takes 30 minutes per
cylinder. I bet it has something to do with
the large diameter at which these two new molds
cast the blanks.

Aren't the rough castings coming out of the mold
at around 2.380 inch diameter?

I think that is what Shawn said they are coming
out of the mold at. That is very close to the
fresh diameter of a brand new unshaven
Ediphone blank. So, to get down from 2.380
diameter, to around 2.196 to the largest size
for an entertainment phonograph, that is
about .184 of material on the diameter that
needs to come off. Taking off roughly .006
of material on the diameter per shave, that
comes out to roughly 30 passes of the shaver
cutter. More if thinner slices are taken
each time.

So yes, 30 minutes seems about right to me.

One really NICE feature of doing things that
way is the fact that this method allows
all of the less-good wax that hangs around
close to the mold's surface to be thoroughly
shaved away, getting down to the nice quiet
wax that is way down inside!

My hat is off to you, Shawn. Those two new
molds of yours are just awesome!

Chuck

[shavergirl]

yes Chuck that is right. They are thick and wobbly at first, 2.4" in diameter.