Wax Cylinders: The First Commercial Audio Medium

February 20
19 mins

Episode Description

Today, if you want to listen to a something, chances are you can pop it up on your phone, and boom, there you go. But before that, there was the iPod, CDs, cassettes, and vinyl. But before that, there were wax cylinders. All the way back in 1888 they were the first commercial recording device. This is the story of the Phonograph Cylinder.


Sources


https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/articles-and-essays/history-of-edison-sound-recordings/history-of-the-cylinder-phonograph/ ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder ; https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/earliest-sound-recordings-short-history-cylinders

Images: By M. Dupres: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder#/media/File:Cilindrodefonografo.jpg


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