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Well I certainly am excited today that I got my first two brown wax cylinders thinking I broken my record for oldest record I’ve found. Then I looked up the titles. I saw dates as late as 1904? I assumed after 1901 ended production of brown wax ceased? Maybe it was just with Edison but Columbia still released on brown wax past 1901?

I’ll post the links to the records from the UCSB cylinder archive but I have a hunch I didn’t actually beat my record for oldest records found. (anything from before 1901)

https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/sear ... inder11029

https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/sear ... inder11298

EDIT: I kinda solved my own question with this article https://www.gracyk.com/wax.shtml

BUT are my two brown waxes these very late records?


And here’s a photo of the actual records.

I have a moulded Columbia brown wax of "Tell Me,Pretty Maiden".Their first moulded were brown I understand. edisonplayer.

The record on the right is a typical Columbia early moulded record - as seen by the title on the rim. The picture is not clear enough to tell about the one on the left.

The August 1904 issue of The Columbia Record announced "Columbia Gold Moulded New Process Cylinder Records." These were the black cylinders, which more closely resembled the Edison product.

There's an illustrated chronology of Columbia cylinder records here:
https://forum.antiquephono.org/topic/27 ... hronology/

George P.

phonogfp wrote: Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:52 am The record on the right is a typical Columbia early moulded record - as seen by the title on the rim. The picture is not clear enough to tell about the one on the left.

The August 1904 issue of The Columbia Record announced "Columbia Gold Moulded New Process Cylinder Records." These were the black cylinders, which more closely resembled the Edison product.

There's an illustrated chronology of Columbia cylinder records here:
https://forum.antiquephono.org/topic/27 ... hronology/

George P.

The one on the right “Night Alarm” had a later announcement that didn’t say “Columbia phonograph company of New York and Paris like this one did, so I assumed it was later. (Here are the two versions I saw on the UCSB website)

https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/deta ... 6&r=2&of=4

And the version of Night Alarm (the one I have) here has this later announcement
https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/deta ... 6&r=4&of=4

And the other record also has the title on it near the edge but it was a bit hard to read, and it had no announcement at all it just went into the Sketch.

I know it’s not the end of the world but little details like that get me! Like I’m trying to solve some mystery, or figure out a problem.

Looking at your thread George, I’m gonna say both are moulded brown wax from about 1902?
Which technically would make these my oldest cylinders so far, but not my OLDEST records that title still belongs to those Pre-dog Victors and Climax Columbia disc titles from 1901.