Why did the disc supplant the cylinder???

[bobb]

Hi Guys,

I'm a simple guy. As such I'm not understanding why the disc record overtook and replaced the cylinder record. To me the cylinder seems a much more compact, easy to handle, easy to store, and less fragile solution. So why was the disc so much more popular? Was it the length of the recording, better sound, etc????

thanks,
bob

[estott]

Various reasons.

Discs are easier to manufacture. To make a cylinder you need to carefully calculate the groove depth and material shrinkage factors to allow a cylinder to be withdrawn from a one piece mold. A disc can be easily and quickly stamped out. With mass production disc records could be made and sold for as little as a dime each, and much faster.

Discs are compact: for example, in slightly more than the space occupied by four cylinder boxes you can stack several dozen seven inch disc records.

Disc playing machines are mechanically simpler and more economical. They don't need feed screw mechanisms to carry the reproducer across the record.

[Jerry B.]

There was a much better variety of music on disk. If Thomas Edison did not like something, it did not get recorded. Jerry Blais

[Nat]

Storage would be my reason for switching. A complete symphony or an entire opera take up a few inches of shelf space - how much room would 45+ minutes of cylinders take? Add to this the automatic changer, and you have "almost" uninterrupted music, impossible with the cylinder.

Otherwise, ease of manufacture and simpler playback machinery. The wonder is that cylinders held on so long - into the 20's (wonderful as they can be).

[estott]

Storage would be my reason for switching. A complete symphony or an entire opera take up a few inches of shelf space - how much room would 45+ minutes of cylinders take? Add to this the automatic changer, and you have "almost" uninterrupted music, impossible with the cylinder.

Otherwise, ease of manufacture and simpler playback machinery. The wonder is that cylinders held on so long - into the 20's (wonderful as they can be).

The place the cylinder lasted longest was the office dictation machine. Disc recording devices were tried but nothing was entirely satisfactory until the introduction of the wire recorder and the magnetic tape.

My Grandfather used a wax cylinder Dictaphone until he replaced it with a Soundsciber which used green plastic discs- they worked (we still have a few) but weren't reusable. He replaced it with an early portable tape recorder (¼ inch tape in steel cassettes) and a more streamlined model in the early 1960'

[Starkton]

First and foremost, the sound from the disc was much louder. Until about 1904 or so, talking machines were mainly bought by exhibitioners and innkeepers. Volume attracted more attention and many customers had become weary of hearing tubes.

[JohnM]

Until the disc finally overtook the cylinder, they ran a very interesting race vying for the longer playing time.

[1923VictorFan]

I don't know if anyone else feels this way but I grew to hate the later Edison cylinders with plaster insides. I lived many years in Central Texas where my turn of the century home relied in Summer upon ceiling fans and window A/C units. The ever changing heat, coolness, high humidity & extreme low humidity made me box and shift my little cyinder collection from room to room according to the seasons. I still had lots of swelling and cracking plaster. The older 2 minute black wax cylinders were MUCH easier to own.

I dealt with these issues while living in Texas in the 1990's where fans and window A/C units were available. I KNOW that people must have also experienced the same thing throughout much of The Western US. Likewise cylinders all throughout the South must have fallen victim to fungus and mold. So, that's my vote! Cylinders may have had slightly better sound than the earliest disk records but they were just too fragile and easily damaged by changes in temperature & humidity.

[Jerry B.]

I think 1923VictorFan's post was very interesting. I've never had any problems with Blue Amberols here in Oregon. All you have to do is keep them out of the rain. Jerry Blais

[Uncle Vanya]

I don't know if anyone else feels this way but I grew to hate the later Edison cylinders with plaster insides. I lived many years in Central Texas where my turn of the century home relied in Summer upon ceiling fans and window A/C units. The ever changing heat, coolness, high humidity & extreme low humidity made me box and shift my little cyinder collection from room to room according to the seasons. I still had lots of swelling and cracking plaster. The older 2 minute black wax cylinders were MUCH easier to own.

I dealt with these issues while living in Texas in the 1990's where fans and window A/C units were available. I KNOW that people must have also experienced the same thing throughout much of The Western US. Likewise cylinders all throughout the South must have fallen victim to fungus and mold. So, that's my vote! Cylinders may have had slightly better sound than the earliest disk records but they were just too fragile and easily damaged by changes in temperature & humidity.

You've never had your wax cylinders become covered in mold? Crack in cold weather?

WHAT LUCK!

You know, back when I started collecting one would find four or five wax cylinders for every Blue Amberol that turned up. My Father-in-law (who was a collector himself) remembered when one would find black wax at a twenty-to-one ratio. These days the ratio seems to be about even, there has been such great shrinkage of the Black Wax population over the last few generations. The sales of Gold Moulded cylinders were enormously greater than those of the Blue Amberols, but the rat of attrition is so much greater for the earilier records.