The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was wondering if anyone had some original recordings on Dictaphone cylinders. What kind of business information was originally recorded on them?

Letters mostly. Instead of having the secretary come
into his office to take dictation, the boss would
dictate the letter onto the cylinder. He'd then place
that cylinder in the outbox and the secretary would
pick it up and transcribe it later.

At the end of each day in a busy office, all the cylinders
would get shaved after having been transcribed and checked.

That's most likely why so few dictated cylinders
are around to be listened to.

Thanks for the reply. I kind of figured that the cylinders were shaved when the information was typed out. It would be neat to hear and old transcription on one though.

My memory may be faulty, but I seem to have read that an archival recording of one of the earliest published ragtime songs, sung by its composer, was recorded on a Dictaphone:

[YouTube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEBs_mpTH6w[/YouTube]
(this is the Library of Congress' recording of Ben Harney singing "You been a Good Old Wagon, But You Done Broke Down")

Bill