The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Over the weekend I purchased a few cylinders and these were in the group. I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about them. I didn't see anything online about these cylinders but then again my online research was brief. I suspect they're pretty uncommon.

Doug

A fast googling for prof a m thatcher prohibitionist, has revealed this text from this book

Columbia's 40,000 series was reserved for 1908 Presidential Election Campaign cylinders. These are the first I've seen that were not either Taft or Bryan.

George P.

Thank you for the helpful info provided so far! I didn't realize until reading George's comments that the Columbia 40,000 series was reserved for the 1908 Presidential Campaign. It's interesting that these Prohibition cylinders were included in the series. The William Jennings Bryan or William H. Taft speech cylinders on Columbia must also be scarce as I've yet to find any. Interestingly, within the group of cylinders I purchased were a few Bryan and Taft cylinders on Edison which suggests that the original owner was keenly interested in political affairs of that time.

Doug

Hello,

The 1908 Presidential Cylinders (as with Edison, also favoring Taft in number) appeared in Ken Lorenz' long-ago Columbia Cylinderography.
It is out of print (pub by Kastlemusick), but does appear online, at InterNetArchive.org. See p. 75.

There were other such cylinders (black wax moulded) in this group, esp from the Prohibition Party, and even (purportedly) from/by Eugene Debs, 'Winning a World.' But between you, me, and the lamppost, it ain't Debs. Whether the other "3rd party" candidates are really themselves (or not ) is an interesting question.

Although there were indeed some experimental cylinders made by the Lambert Co., none of them (as far as I know) were political (well, maybe royalty). No. 62, "Einstein at a Prize Fight" is not recorded by the physicist and slightly precedes his fame.

Allen