Editing Phonograph cylinder (section)

==Early development==
In December 1877,<ref name="congress" /> [[Thomas Edison]] and his team invented the [[phonograph]] using a thin sheet of [[tin foil]] wrapped around a hand-cranked, grooved metal cylinder.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mixonline.com/news/news-products/1877-thomas-edison-cylinder-recorder/383579|title=1877 Thomas Edison Cylinder Recorder|date=September 1, 2006|work=[[Mix (magazine)|Mix Magazine]]|access-date=2016-07-11}}</ref> Tin foil was not a practical recording medium for either commercial or artistic purposes, and the crude hand-cranked phonograph was only marketed as a novelty, to little or no profit. Edison moved on to developing a practical [[Edison light bulb|incandescent electric light]], and the next improvements to [[History of sound recording|sound recording technology]] were made by others.<ref name="PBS" />

Following seven years of research and experimentation at their [[Volta Laboratory and Bureau#Sound recording and phonograph development|Volta Laboratory]], [[Charles Sumner Tainter]], [[Alexander Graham Bell]], and [[Chichester Bell]] introduced [[wax]] as the recording medium, and engraving, rather than indenting, as the recording method. In 1887, their "[[Graphophone]]" system was being put to the test of practical use by official reporters of the [[United States Congress|US Congress]], with commercial units later being produced by the [[Dictaphone|Dictaphone Corporation]].<ref name="acusd">{{Cite web|url=http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/notes.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813081151/http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/notes.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 13, 2006|title=Recording Technology History|access-date=2018-01-12|first=Steve|last=Schoenherr|date=July 6, 2005|publisher=University of San Diego}}</ref> After this system was demonstrated to Edison's representatives, Edison quickly resumed work on the phonograph. He settled on a thicker all-wax cylinder, the surface of which could be repeatedly shaved down for reuse. Both the Graphophone and Edison's "[[Edison phonograph|Perfected Phonograph]]" were commercialized in 1888. Eventually, a patent-sharing agreement was signed, and the wax-coated cardboard tubes were abandoned in favor of Edison's all-wax cylinders as an interchangeable standard format.<ref>Schoenherr, S. (1999) [http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/recording.technology.history/graphophone.html "Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone"] (via the Audio Engineering Society). Retrieved 2014-05-04.</ref>

{{stack|{{Listen|type=music|filename=Edison cylinder Lost Chord.ogg|title=One of the earliest surviving recordings of music|description=1888 recording of Arthur Sullivan's "[[The Lost Chord]]", recorded by [[George Gouraud]], and played at the August 14, 1888, press conference that introduced the phonograph to London.}}}}
Beginning in 1889, prerecorded wax cylinders were marketed. These have professionally made recordings of songs, instrumental music or humorous monologues in their grooves. At first, the only customers for them were proprietors of [[nickelodeon (movie theater)|nickelodeon]]s—the first [[jukebox]]es—installed in arcades and taverns, but within a few years, private owners of phonographs were increasingly buying them for home use.<ref name="Reiss">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVTcbLuuA5IC&q=Each+cylinder+can+easily+be+placed+on+and+removed+from+the+mandrel+of+the+machine+used+to+play+them&pg=PA1|first=Eric L.|last=Reiss|date=1954|title=The Compleat Talking Machine: A Collector's Guide to Antique Phonographs|publisher=Sanoran Publishing|isbn=9781886606227}}</ref> Unlike later, shorter-playing high-speed cylinders, early cylinder recordings were usually cut at a speed of about 120 rpm and can play for as long as three minutes.<ref name="congress">{{Cite web|url=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/|title=History of the Cylinder Phonograph|access-date=2018-01-12|work=Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> They were made of a relatively soft wax formulation and would wear out after they were played a few dozen times.<ref name="Adapters">{{Cite web|url=http://45recordadapters.com/10-record-types/|title=13 All About the Records|access-date=2018-01-12|first=Russ|last=Orcutt|date=September 7, 2017|work=45 Record Adapters}}</ref> The buyer could then<!--reference needed: either bring the worn cylinders back to the dealer to be traded in as partial credit for purchase of new recordings, or have--> use a mechanism which left their surfaces shaved smooth so new recordings could be made on them.<ref name="Gracyk">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gracyk.com/cylinders.shtml|title=Phonograph Cylinders: A Beginner's Guide|access-date=2018-01-12|first=Tim|last=Gracyk|date=2006|publisher=Tim's Phonographs and Old Records}}</ref>
[[File:EdisonPhonograph.jpg|thumb|Edison wax cylinder phonograph c. 1899]]
Cylinder machines of the late 1880s and the 1890s were usually sold with recording attachments. The ability to record as well as play back sound was an advantage of cylinder phonographs over the competition from cheaper [[phonograph record|disc record]] phonographs, which began to be mass-marketed at the end of the 1890s, as the disc system machines could be used only to play back prerecorded sound.<ref name="Gracyk" />

In the earliest stages of phonograph manufacturing, various incompatible, competing types of cylinder recordings were made. A standard system was decided upon by [[Edison Records]], [[Columbia Phonograph]], and other companies in the late 1880s. The standard cylinders are about {{convert|4|in|cm}} long, {{convert|2+1/4|in|cm}} in diameter, and play about two minutes of recorded material.<ref name="Adapters"/>

Originally, all cylinders sold needed to be recorded live on the softer brown wax, which wore out after as few as 20 plays. Later cylinders were reproduced either mechanically or by linking phonographs together with rubber tubes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cylinder.de/guide_brown-wax-cylinders.html|title=Brown Wax Cylinders|website=The Cylinder Archive}}</ref>

Over the years, the type of wax used in cylinders was improved and hardened, so that cylinders could be played with good quality over 100 times. In 1902, Edison Records launched a line of improved, hard wax cylinders marketed as "Edison Gold Moulded Records". The major development of this line of cylinders is that Edison had developed a process that allowed a [[Molding (process)|mold]] to be made from a master cylinder, which then permitted the production of several hundred cylinders to be made from the mold.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cylinder.de/guide_black-wax-cylinders.html|title=The Cylinder Archive - Cylinder Guide: Black Wax Cylinders|website=The Cylinder Archive}}</ref> The process was labeled "Gold Moulded" because of the [[gold]] [[vapor]] that was given off by gold [[electrode]]s used in the process.<ref name="congress"/>