The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Has anyone come across this before?

I saw four 5inch Edison cylinders on eBay for sale. They were in truly terrible condition: discoloring, “mold” and cracks. One seems to be fairly “moldy” on the ends but the middle preserved and with no cracks.

I just got them - terribly packed. While in the pictures there were cracks in the cylinders they were not in pieces. Every me arrived in pieces, badly packed, with one exception. The one cylinder that was not cracked was fine! I was pretty happy since I paid 50$ for the entire lot. The others probably weren’t playable even before they were in pieces.

The one cylinder is in ok shape. I put it in my concert and it fits the mandrel just fine. Oddly the stylus doesn’t reach the outer diameter of the cylinder. I checked it against some of my other concert cylinders and it is truly smaller. It doesn’t seem like it was shaved down. I’d love to play it but I genuinely don’t know how. The stylus is not an insignificant distance from the cylinder. Otherwise it looks like it might be playable. Any thoughts on this?

I had a cylinder like that. My only solution was to play it on a Columbia AB, due to it's floating reproducer that could hinge low enough to engage the cylinder.

Interesting - one of the cylinder cases was a Columbia. I wonder if it was just in the wrong case. All I’ve got is an Edison Concert. I guess I’ll just hang onto it for now.

Now what to do with the cylinders that arrived in pieces!

KCW wrote: Mon May 27, 2024 7:38 pm
Now what to do with the cylinders that arrived in pieces!

Personally, I would throw them away.