Edison Records was one of the early record labels that pioneered sound recording and reproduction, and was an important and successful company in the early recording industry.
History The first phonograph cylinders were manufactured in 1888, followed by Edison's foundation of the Edison Phonograph Company in the same year. The recorded "wax" cylinders, later replaced by Blue Amberol cylinders, and vertical-cut Diamond Discs, were manufactured by Edison's National Phonograph Company from 1896 on, reorganized as Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in 1911. Until 1910 the recordings did not carry the names of the artists. The company began to lag behind its rivals in the 1920s, both technically and in the popularity of its artists, and halted production of recordings in 1929.
Before commercial mass-produced records Thomas A. Edison invented the phonograph, the first device for recording and playing back sound, in 1877. After patenting the invention and benefiting from the publicity and acclaim it received, Edison and his laboratory turned their attention to the commercial development of electric lighting, playing no further role in the development of the phonograph for nearly a decade. Edison's original phonograph recorded on sheets of tinfoil and was little more than a crude curiosity, although one that fascinated much of the public. These earliest phonographs were sold mainly to entrepreneurs who made a living out of traveling around the country giving "educational" lectures in hired halls or otherwise demonstrating the device to audiences for a fee. The tinfoil phonograph was not fit for any real practical use and public interest soon waned.
Beginnings of the commercial record industry In 1887, Edison turned his attention back to improving the phonograph and the phonograph cylinder. The following year, the Edison company debuted the Perfected Phonograph. Edison introduced wax cylinders approximately long and in external diameter, which became the industry standard. They had a maximum playing time of about 3 minutes at 120 RPM, but around the turn of the century the standard speed was increased to (first 144) and then 160 RPM to improve clarity and volume, reducing the maximum to about 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Several experimental wax cylinder recordings of music and speech made in 1888 still exist.
The wax entertainment cylinder made its commercial debut in 1889 (a relatively well-preserved and freely available example from that year is the Fifth Regiment March, played by Issler's Orchestra). At first, the only customers were entrepreneurs who installed nickel-in-the-slot phonographs in amusement arcades, saloons and other public places. At that time, a phonograph cost the equivalent of several months' wages for the average worker and was driven by an electric motor powered by hazardous, high-maintenance wet cell batteries. After more affordable spring-motor-driven phonographs designed for home use were introduced in 1895, the industry of producing recorded entertainment cylinders for sale to the general public began in earnest.
There is a frequent misconception of the records being made of "wax", as many later records were mostly being made of other material of similar feel. Before the plastic amberol records were introduced, their predecessor, Edison "Gold-Moulded" records (1902-1912), were made of a metallic soap compound, which had the qualities of wax. Earlier still, brown wax records (c.1889-1902) were occasionally made of wax derived from animal fat, but the inconsistency of the compound led Edison to use other material in an effort to improve the quality of the early records.
Blank records were an important part of the business early on. Most phonographs had or could be fitted with attachments for the users to make their own recordings. One important early use, in line with the original term for a phonograph as a "talking machine", was in business for recording dictation. Attachments were added to facilitate starting, stopping, and skipping back the recording for dictation and playback by stenographers. The business phonograph eventually evolved into a separate device from the home entertainment phonograph. Edison's brand of business phonograph was called The Ediphone; see Phonograph cylinder and Dictaphone. Edison was one of the first companies to record the African-American quartet the Unique Quartet.
Mass-produced cylinders
A significant technological development at the Edison Laboratories was devising a method to mass-produce pre-recorded phonograph cylinders in molds. This was done by using very slightly tapered cylinders and molding in a material that contracted as it set. To Edison's disappointment, the commercial potential of this process was not realized for some years. Most of the regional Edison distributors were able to fill the small early market for recordings by mechanical duplication of a few dozen cylinders at a time. Molded cylinders did not become a significant force in the marketplace until the end of the 1890s, which was when molding was slow and was used only to create pantograph masters.
Before using metal cylinders though Edison used paraffin paper. Mass-producing cylinders at the Edison recording studio in New Jersey largely ended the local Edison retailers early practice of producing recordings in small numbers for regional markets, and helped concentrate the USA recording industry in the New York City – New Jersey area, already the headquarters of the nation's Tin Pan Alley printed music industry.
In 1902, Edison's National Phonograph Company introduced Edison Gold Moulded Records, cylinder records of improved hard black wax, capable of being played hundreds of times before wearing out. These new records were under the working title of "Edison Hi-Speed Extra Loud Moulded Records", running at the speed of 160 RPM instead of the usual (ca. 1898–1902) speed of 144 RPM or (ca. 1889–1897) 120 RPM. Until ca. 1898, Edison's speed was 125 RPM.
In 1908, Edison introduced a new line of cylinders (called Amberol) playing 4 rather than 2 minutes of music on the same sized record, achieved by shrinking the grooves and spacing them twice as close together. New machines were sold to play these records, as were attachments for modifying existing Edison phonographs.
In November 1912, the new Blue Amberol Records, made out of a type of smooth, hard plastic similar to celluloid invented by Edison labs, were introduced for public sale. The first release was number 1501, a performance of Rossini's overture to his opera Semiramide, performed by the American Standard Orchestra. The plastic Blue Amberol records were much more durable than wax cylinders. The Edison lab claimed a 3000+ playback quota for the Blue Amberol. In that same year, the Edison Disc Record came out.
In 1910, artists' names began to be added to the records; previously, Edison's policy was to promote his cylinders (and up until 1915, discs) based on the recognition of composers and the works recorded thereon in lieu of the performers themselves.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc., successor to the National Phonograph Company, continued selling cylinders until they went out of the record business in November 1929. However, from January 1915 onwards these were simply dubs of their commercial disc records intended for customers who still used cylinder phonographs purchased years before. The book, "Edison Cylinder Records, 1889-1912," by Allen Koenigsberg, APM Press, lists and dates all American Edison wax cylinders (2-4 min.); .
Materials and process used to manufacture cylinder records
Cylinders that are mentioned from 1888 are sometimes called "yellow paraffin" cylinders, but these cylinders are not paraffin, which is a soft oily wax and would not hold up over many plays. They could be a number of formulas tested by Jonas Aylsworth, Thomas Edison's chemist. Most of the surviving 1888 recordings would be formulated from a combination of ceresin wax, carnauba wax, stearic acid, and beeswax. A record of this kind has a cigar-like smell and is physically very soft when first molded. In a year's time, the record would harden quite considerably.Experiments of Jonas Aysworth notebook 1887–1889 Rutgers University/Edison Papers Project. To play these first cylinders, the model B reproducer must be used. The other later reproducers (such as C) were only designed for the harder black "wax" records. A later reproducer would shave down the grooves very fast, and the sound would be lost forever.
In late 1888, metallic soaps were tried. At first, a lead stearate was used, but in the summer months, these records started to sweat and decompose. In 1889, Aylsworth developed an aluminum wax, using acetate of alumina and stearic acid with sodium hydroxide added as a saponifying agent. It was found these records were much more durable. Problems arose, however, since there was no tempering agent and hot weather caused these records to decompose. Two problems contributed to this, stearic quality varied from different makers; Aylsworth purchased some from Procter & Gamble and found it contained too much oleic acid. Stearic acid without a tempering agent takes on moisture, and after many experiments, it was found that Ceresine was ideal. To make the wax hard, sodium carbonate was added. Even so, a few batches of records still had problems and became fogged. The fog problem arose from acetic acid left in the wax and was solved when higher temperatures were used to make sure the acetic acid was boiled out of the wax. As such, the records from 1889 to 1894 are a reddish-brown color due to the long cooking time. By 1896, Edison started using hydrated alumina in place of acetate of alumina. The use of hydrated alumina (sheet aluminum dissolved in a mixture of sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, and distilled water) made better records, and the wax could be manufactured in a shorter period of time. Using hydrated alumina resulted in more desirable blanks, with fewer defects and shorter production time.
The Columbia Phonograph Company used Edison recording blanks until 1894. The North American Phonograph Company was dissolved in the fall of 1894, and Edison quit supplying blanks to Columbia, who had purchased 70,000 blanks from 1889 to 1894. Columbia was frantic to find a solution to make cylinder blanks in-house, and the recipe for making Edison's wax was a well-kept secret. Thomas MacDonald experimented with wax alloys with poor results: the records fogged or decomposed in the summer, just like the early Edison blanks. The Columbia company had a deadline to either supply recordings, or have their contracts canceled and be sued for loss of records. Columbia resorted to hiring old Edison Phonograph Works employees, such as Mr. Storms, in order to learn their secrets. Unfortunately for Columbia, the names of the components used by Edison were not labeled with ingredients but were instead indicated by number (i.e. 1, 2, 3) keeping the identities of these components a secret. Paraffin, ceresine, and ozokerite all look similar, making the tempering agent even more difficult to identifify by the wax mixer. Wax mixers were given instructions on how much of each numbered component to put in the mixture, and how to process it, but no idea as to what the ingredients actually were. It took over a year for Columbia to come up with the formula for cylinders. Columbia placed an ad in the Soap Makers' Journal for a practical man to work with metallic soaps. Adolph Melzer, a soap manufacturer from Evansville, Indiana took the job. Melzer devised a formula comparable to Edison's with the exception of the tempering agent (using cocinic acid, derived from coconut oil instead.)