The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was happy to see that the Edison Cylinder Phonograph was mentioned in one of today's lists -- Top 10 Short-Lived Inventions That Changed The World -- https://listverse.com/2020/07/27/10-sho ... the-world/

.....that is, until I read what the author wrote

"The earliest commercial medium of its type, Edison’s phonograph recorded on paraffin paper cylinders embossed by a needle and diaphragm. Pre-recorded phonograph cylinders were soon available commercially, the crackly ancestor of today’s CDs and MP4s. The paraffin cylinders were soon replaced by more durable metal cylinders covered in tin foil, but these likewise suffered rapid deterioration, so the tin foil covering was finally replaced with hard wax coating."

OrthoFan

OUCH!

"Those with little or incomplete information can be dangerous, especially if they are influencers!"

startgroove wrote:"Those with little or incomplete information can be dangerous, especially if they are influencers!"

So true....

From what I can tell, the author's information was culled (and misinterpreted) from the LOC page profiling the history and development of the Edison Phonograph --

https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison- ... honograph/

As for the author's premise that the cylinder record format was short-lived, I don't agree with that either. I'd say four+ decades -- for the prerecorded cylinders sold to the public for entertainment -- was a pretty good run. This doesn't take into account the fact that recordable cylinders used for dictation machines were sold for about 30 years after Edison's phonograph business was shut down in 1929.

I tried posting a rebuttal as a guest in the comments section, but couldn't get past the "I am not a robot" captcha screen.

OrthoFan