The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Sorry if this question has been asked repeatedly, but I couldn’t find an answer in the forum by searching. A while back I found and downloaded an online spreadsheet database of all Edison diamond discs (an awesome resource, searchable, and easy to copy and paste to make my own list of the discs in my collection) but does an online listing of all Edison blue amberols exist? I know about the (unfortunately out of print) books by Dethlefson.

I just got my first cylinder player and I have about 150 blue amberol cylinders that I’m working my way through.

You can find a complete list here.

Rich Gordon

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... lar_Series

rgordon939 wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 8:42 pm You can find a complete list here.

Rich Gordon

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... lar_Series

Missing a ton, and is also described as "very incomplete"

I wonder if it is due to a size limitation, or if it has simply not been done. I will try to submit an edit sometime soon and see if i can add what I can

swamprad wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 8:07 pm Sorry if this question has been asked repeatedly, but I couldn’t find an answer in the forum by searching. A while back I found and downloaded an online spreadsheet database of all Edison diamond discs (an awesome resource, searchable, and easy to copy and paste to make my own list of the discs in my collection) but does an online listing of all Edison blue amberols exist? I know about the (unfortunately out of print) books by Dethlefson.

I just got my first cylinder player and I have about 150 blue amberol cylinders that I’m working my way through.

Some of the earlier BAs can be found on a similar spreadsheet referenced in the Forum.. Search for Edison+spreadsheet, and you'll find the cylinder one.

As the later BAs were dubbed from disc masters, you can search titles there.

- Bill

This UK publication, long out of print, still turns up on eBay.
I find reference works so much more convenient to use in book form.

Many people (and I include myself) are fascinated by the 5600-5700 range of Blue Amberols, but it used to be assumed that an authoritative listing of these last cylinders would never be assembled because the assigning of BA numbers to the recordings was done in New York but the actual dubbing was done in West Orange and, at some point (late-summer, maybe) West Orange decided it wasn't worthwhile to continue the work. The story was that New York continued matching recordings with BA catalog numbers but the actual cylinders would never be made.
Are we still left with this uncertainty or has this now been cleared up?

Cleared up long ago. Issued numbers end at 5719. Numbers 5720-5732 were assigned but never issued. Ron Dethlefson's second Blue Amberol book includes pictures of some the stock cards used to track the last cylinders issued. At the end, Edison was rarely ordering more than 100 copies of any cylinder and in many cases, not even that many were produced.