Cylinder of the Month

This over 115-year-old wax cylinder recording was produced by Edison's Phonograph Works for, and in the last months before the breakup of, the North American Phonograph Company.   This record is part of Edison's "numerical series" which ran from 1892 to 1894 in which his records were numbered successively and whose relatively elaborate announcements were often uniquely ornamented with the record number declared in the announcement.

Also typical of the state of the art, this particular cylinder was a copy made by means of a hollow tube carrying the sound from the master phonograph to the duplicating phonograph.   Tube-copied cylinders possess a classic and distinctive "hollow" sound and are prone to acoustic distortion during louder passages.

Pioneering recording artist Edward M. Favor, who also announces the recording, advertises himself as a member of "Rice's 1492 Company", a well-known theatrical troupe of the period headed by Edward E. Rice.

To hear Mother's Twilight Song  — For help playing these sounds, click here.

Interested in hearing other examples of early tube-copied recordings?

Key	Title	Category	Performed by	Circa
10/1997	Lanciers with Figures Called	Orchestra	Issler's Popular Orchestra	1893-1894
05/1999	Take Your Time, Gentlemen	Song	Press Eldridge	1892

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— This cylinder is from the collection of Jeffrey Wood —

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