Bought A Few Cylinders & Found A Little Surprise

[Wolfe]

That was a find all right. Really nice.

I can just picture cracking open the dusty old sporting goods box and the "fresh" wax smell wafting all over the room, as you take deep a draught of breath, and then another.

[edisonphonoworks]

You don't usually find that nice fresh wax smell anymore. the wooden boxes with the air tight lip seem to do a good job of retaining the smell. Yes the fresh crayon smell, know it well.

[FellowCollector]

Author Edit: It turns out the brown wax cylinder "Bill Nye On Tripe" referenced below and featured in my video may not be a "home recording" after all but instead may indeed be Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye, a distinguished journalist and later humorist born in Shirley, Maine and passing in 1896. See my comments later in this thread. Thanks go to "Turkeydoodlers", one of my YouTube channel subscribers who did some research online and notified me of the probable association of Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye with this brown wax cylinder recording. - Doug
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Thought some of you might enjoy one of the early brown wax "home recording" cylinders from this group of cylinders. I just posted this to my YouTube channel. It's a very clear, well recorded cylinder. Part 2 of the recording is a short message to a friend or relative about the passing of an "Uncle Fitzpatrick" (?). In the video I mention that I believed the cylinder to be recorded 1899-1900 but now that I have listened more carefully to it the gentleman indicates using tripe on an automobile which would date the cylinder to a slightly later time period. I'm hoping to post a few more of these early cylinders on my channel as I can find an opportunity.

Doug

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib8fDDGbLxs[/youtube]

[Phonofreak]

Doug, That was a good video, and a neat cylinder. One piece of advice I want to give you is DO NOT PLAY brown wax cylinders on a late Columbia with the spring loaded lyric reproducer. Your records will be worn out in no time, and possibly be ruined. Brown wax is too soft to withstand the pressure with these types of reproducers. If you do play your brown wax, use the earlier Columbia floating reproducer that is used on the Q, B, A, AT, etc. For Edison machines, use the Automatic, B (not Diamond B) You can use a C, but I wouldn't recommend it because of the extra weight.Hope this helps.
Harvey Kravitz

[FloridaClay]

What a little treasurer. A do-it-yourself comedy routine.

Clay

[FellowCollector]

Doug, That was a good video, and a neat cylinder. One piece of advice I want to give you is DO NOT PLAY brown wax cylinders on a late Columbia with the spring loaded lyric reproducer.
Harvey Kravitz

Thanks for your gracious comments Harvey. I'm aware of the possible damage to brown wax cylinders by using inappropriate reproducers or those that would impose unnecessary stress on the fragile grooves. This reproducer has been modified by me with a very very light tension spring so there is no stress at all on the grooves. And the stylus is excellent. In fact, I have several graphophones in the collection with floating weights and this one imposes the least groove stress of any of them. All the best, Doug

[Phonofreak]

Hi Doug,
Thanks for explaining that to me. What type of spring did you use on the reproducer? Did you use either an Edison 2 min or a Columbia 2 min.? Some Columbia lyric reproducer used a spike stylus for both 2 and 4 min records. Could you post some pictures of the reproducer, spring and stylus? I'd love to see the modifications. Or, maybe in the tips section, you can explain to us how you did these modifications. The reproducer you modified sounds quite loud.I really want to know.
Harvey Kravitz

[OrthoSean]

Hi Doug,
Thanks for explaining that to me. What type of spring did you use on the reproducer? Did you use either an Edison 2 min or a Columbia 2 min.? Some Columbia lyric reproducer used a spike stylus for both 2 and 4 min records. Could you post some pictures of the reproducer, spring and stylus? I'd love to see the modifications. Or, maybe in the tips section, you can explain to us how you did these modifications. The reproducer you modified sounds quite loud.I really want to know.
Harvey Kravitz

Harvey, you beat me to it! I'd like to know more about this as well, please?

Sean

[coyote]

Interesting that the essay on tripe seems to have been around since the 1880s, so the reference to using tripe as a "bumper between cars" does not refer to an automobile car. If this is the same gentleman in both sections, it is hard to understand why he doesn't have a noticeable accent in the tripe section, but does in the "letter" portion. Perhaps this is not a letter, but the beginning of another recitation lost to history?

The Google books that the tripe essay is listed in are not the exact version, but are pretty similar. Very interesting.

http://www.google.com/#newwindow=1&nirf ... th&start=0

[FellowCollector]

Interesting that the essay on tripe seems to have been around since the 1880s, so the reference to using tripe as a "bumper between cars" does not refer to an automobile car.

You are absolutely correct. The speaker on this early brown wax cylinder recording, Bill Nye, refers to "car" (in a typical Maine accent as "Cahh") so I was incorrect in assuming he was referring to an automobile but instead a railroad car.

And it turns out that this brown wax cylinder may be much more historically important than I had ever imagined.

One of the subscribers to my YouTube channel did some research online and found the following on Wikipedia about Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye, a distinguished journalist and later humorist born in Shirley, Maine and passing in 1896.

It is now likely IMHO that this cylinder may have been recorded by this well known early humorist sometime before he passed in 1896. The brief 30 second or so "home recording" after the end of Bill Nye's recording on Tripe is likely the original owner of this cylinder and he decided to use the "free space" at the end of Nye's recording to record the note on the passing of "your Uncle Kilpatrick" probably for a relative to listen to.

This may be the only (who knows?) surviving cylinder or perhaps one of only a very few cylinder recordings by Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye. Even though today we may not know much about him or his life and his contribution to American history, this cylinder may be important to those familiar with his legacy. It would be interesting to know if there are other surviving cylinder recordings by him.

Thankfully, this one is in very nice condition. Here is the Wikipedia entry:

From Wikipedia:

Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye (August 25, 1850 – February 22, 1896) was a distinguished American journalist, who later became widely known as a humorist. He was also the founder and editor of the Laramie Boomerang.

Biography

Nye was born in Shirley, Maine. He was educated at River Falls, Wisconsin, moved to Wyoming Territory, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1876. He began early to contribute humorous sketches to the newspapers, using the pen name of "Bill Nye" after a character in a famous poem by Bret Harte popularly known as "The Heathen Chinee". He was connected with various western journals, and afterward settled in New York City.[1]

The Boomerang was founded while Nye was the postmaster of Laramie City, Wyoming Territory. It launched him to national fame, gaining subscribers in every state and some foreign countries. His humor was uniquely American. In 1892, he wrote in The Century Magazine:

There is a grim and ghastly humor -- the humor that is born of a pathetic philosophy -- which now and then strikes me in reading the bright and keen-witted work of our American paragraphers. It is a humor that may be crystallized by hunger and sorrow and tears. It is not found elsewhere as it is in America. It is out of the question in England, because an Englishman cannot poke fun at himself. He cannot joke about an empty flour-barrel. We can: especially if by doing it we may swap the joke for another barrel of flour. We can never be a nation of snobs so long as we are willing to poke fun at ourselves.

Some of his works include Bill Nye's Comic History of the United States, Baled Hay, Remarks, Bill Nye and Boomerang, Bill Nye's History of England, and Bill Nye's Red Book.

Late in his career, he was briefly associated with James Whitcomb Riley with whom he wrote two books. They also appeared together on the lecture circuit. He also travelled and lectured with Luther Burbank.

He died of meningitis in Arden, North Carolina. He is buried in Calvary Episcopal Churchyard in Fletcher,
Henderson County, North Carolina. A historical marker honoring him is located in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, between the towns of Roberts and River Falls, and a second is located in Fletcher, North Carolina. A small monument marks his birthplace in Shirley, Maine.

======== For Harvey and Sean ========

I will try to post some pics of my reproducer when I get a chance!

Thanks for your interest, Doug