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I was wondering how many U.S. Edison BAs were made, not including Specials, Royal Purples, Operas, etc., just the 1,xxx-5,xxx series. How many people have all of the 1k-5k set?
Thanks!

The BA popular series runs from 1501-5719, with a handful of unreleased numbers, so roughly 4200 different titles. There is also a series of educational cylinders in this series that are nearly impossible to find.

I know of no one who has ever completed the set, even without the educational group. In some cases as few as 25 copies were pressed of the very late cylinders.

I wonder who has the most complete set?

Rich Gordon

How are the educational cylinders marked? Over 4200....that would take up some space!

MC2300 wrote:How are the educational cylinders marked? Over 4200....that would take up some space!

By number. 1657-1710.

rgordon939 wrote:I wonder who has the most complete set?

Rich Gordon

I knew a guy in RI who was within 100 or so at one time, but I believe he has since passed on.

I do know someone in CA who is working on completing the wax Amberol popular set and only needs 30-40 of them, and about the same number of lids. Of course that's "only" 1157 records.

What approximate cylinder number range did Edison stop using the blue containers/boxes and switch to the orange?

52089 wrote:

rgordon939 wrote:I wonder who has the most complete set?

Rich Gordon

I knew a guy in RI who was within 100 or so at one time, but I believe he has since passed on.

I do know someone in CA who is working on completing the wax Amberol popular set and only needs 30-40 of them, and about the same number of lids. Of course that's "only" 1157 records.

When I spoke to him at the last Wayne Show in October 2019 he was only missing about a dozen.

Rich Gordon