Three Rival Phonographs – Improved Models

Edison Perfected Phonograph, with Battery
from Edison NHS
listening to the graphophone
from Edison NHS
Empire-style gramophone
about 1900
The Perfected Phonograph (above) of October 1888 with an electric motor that used solid white wax cylinders 4 inches by 2-1/5 inches, at speeds of 120 to 195 rpm, for a duration of about 2 minutes.
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(below)Edison Standard phonograph after 1896 allowed the machine to be cranked briefly to start, then could be left unattended while the spring motor rotated the cylinder for 2 minutes
In the 1890’s, Columbia discontinued the cardboard graphophone cylinder and adopted the Edison sold wax cylinder. These were shorter and wider than the graphophone cylinders, and made of solid wax, but they could be played on a graphophone (above) equipped with a nickel-plated mandrel and modified to play the Edison cylinders of 100 grooves per inch.
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(below) Columbia Eagle graphophone sold for just $10
Berliner published in 1894 his first list of gramophone discs for sale, at 60 cents each, 6 and 7/8-inch diameter (after 1895 are 7-inch), duration 2 minutes, made of celluloid (after 1895 of hard rubber, after 1897 of shellac), one-sided, no paper labels. The hand-operated gramophone of 1895 cost $12 and played 7-inch discs that cost 50 cents. Discs rotated at about 70 rpm on average.
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(below) Peter Bacigalupi’s Kinetoscope, Phonograph, and Gramophone Arcade in San Francisco, 1895, showed the great popularity of coin-slot phonographs.
Edison Standard phonograph 1908
from Edison NHS
Columbia Eagle graphophone
from 1898 Pathe catalog
Peter Bacigalupi’s Arcade 1895
from Edison NHS

Sources:

  • Fabrizio, Timothy C. “District of Columbia: The Graphophone in Washngton, D.C.,” ARSC Journal, [Association for Recorded Sound Collections] 27, no. 1, 1996.
  • Koenigsberg, Allen. Edison Cylinder Records, 1889-1912. New York, 1969.
  • Read, Oliver and Walter Welch. From Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution of the Phonograph. Indianapolis, 1959.


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