The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I just bought a few hundred cylinders. It's a mix of brown, black, and amberolas. What puzzles me is that there are a bunch of cylinders with Braille description cards in each container. Did the Edison factory ever include Braille ID cards in cylinders?
Also, while playing the brown was cylinders to identify the titles, I was suppressed to hear the 1950's hit song "Who Wears Short Shorts". I guess someone wanted to record this on a brown wax cylinder, too funny.

Rich Gordon

rgordon939 wrote:What puzzles me is that there are a bunch of cylinders with Braille description cards in each container. Did the Edison factory ever include Braille ID cards in cylinders?

Not that I ever heard of. Those cards were probably homemade. Once the Braille system caught on, there were various typewriters and machines created for the blind to produce letters and cards at home. The wonder is that we don't see Braille associated with records more often. After Braille itself, talking books and musical records had to be very popular entertainment for the blind. Those technical innovations were a kind of liberation for them, to become more independent. As a matter of fact, the first phonograph history book was written by a blind author. He described the phonograph's impact on his own life: http://www.gracyk.com/talkingWax.html