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| Reference Materials |
1. Talking Machines& General Books
(By date of publication)
These books have been collected over a number of years,
and mostly deal with Edison, Columbia & other phonographs & various makers of cylinders.
Click
on thumbnail to view covers full-size.
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"The Fabulous Phonograph" Roland Gelatt Library Of Congress Card 65-28306 Published 1965 Appleton Century REVIEW © www.amazon.com website: If you read the book, you find out that the first edition actually appeared in the mid-1950's; only the last three chapters were added to an "updated edition" in time for the phonograph's centennial, in 1977. This is not a criticism; it is one of the book's strengths that the author was able to speak with associates of the engineers and inventors who were there to see the various improvements to the phonograph. Mr. Gelatt had something like a fifty-year head start over the researcher who would try to put this book together today, so he got a lot closer to the source. It is doubtful he could have known when the book was published that in five short years, the digital medium that eventually replaced the phonograph in most applications would make its appearance in 1982 in the form of a compact disc. Now it is 2002; the phonograph's 125th year, and the 20-year anniversary of CD in America. This book badly needs an update to include the digital revolution that occurred in the 25 years since it was published, but it is an excellent volume on the phonograph itself and related technologies that came and went along the way. It includes some technical explanations of how the inventions worked, but on a level the layman can understand; it doesn't bog down in jargon. You need not be an engineer to enjoy and learn from it--you can be a student of technology, business, marketing, music, advertising, pop culture, or sociology and still find an angle on the phonograph from your perspective in this book. Well worth seeking out; in fact, I read it in the local library, but am now seeking a copy to keep for reference on my home bookshelf. |
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"The
Edison Cylinder Phonographs 1877-1929" George L. Frow & Albert F. Sefl ISBN 0 9505462 2 4 Published 1978 Floprint |
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"The
Illustrated History of Talking Machines" Daniel Marty ISBN 2-88001-108-6 Published 1981 EDITA S. A. REVIEW © Helmut Weber's website: A very interesting volume on many aspects of the history of phonographs, gramophones and vintage recordings. There are a lot of valuable photos. Due to the French author there is a certain emphasize on French themes. A German edition exists, too. |
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"The
Guinness Book Of Recorded Sound" |
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"The
Edison Phonograph The British Connection" Frank Andrews ISBN 0 900883 52 9 Published 1986 Anchor Print/City Of London Phonograph & Gramophone Society REVIEW © www.clpgs.co.uk website: An in depth study of Edison and associated businesses in Britain. HB dust jacket, many monochrome illustrations. |
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"The Lost Voice Of Queen
Victoria" Paul Tritton ISBN 1-873361-11-4 Published 1991 Academy Books REVIEW © www.clpgs.co.uk website: The search for the first documented Royal Recording. HB, dust jacket. Recent events prove him right. |
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"Phono
Graphics - The Visual Paraphernalia Of The Talking Machine" Arnold Schwartzman ISBN 0-8118-0302-3 Published 1993 Chronicle Books REVIEW © www.amazon.com website: 119 pp, provide a celebration of the dazzling array of graphic styles used to adorn and advertise phonographs and phonograph accessories. |
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"The
Edison Cylinder Phonograph Companion" George L. Frow ISBN 0-9606466-1-4 Published 1994 Stationary X-Press REVIEW © www.phonophan.com website: The last word on Edison cylinder machines, covers all models. Ever since the 1970s the successive editions of this book have been invaluable to antique phonograph collectors. Full of facts and lots of black-and-white photos. Hardcover |
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"The
Talking Machine An Illustrated Compendium 1877-1929" Timothy Fabrizio & George Paul ISBN 0-7643-0241-8 Published 1997 Schiffer Publishing REVIEW © Schiffer Publishing: People are looking for antiques that can speak to them of an era gone by. At least, that might explain why antique talking machines are among today's hottest collectibles. Names like "Edison" and "Victor" call to mind an era of polished wood, brightly painted morning glory horns, and fascinating machinery. This thorough compendium contains 550 colour photographs showing an incredible variety of external-horn as well as internal-horn talking machines. The authoritative text and up-to-date value guide complement a wealth of visuals, providing a veritable library. Authors Fabrizio and Paul lend over fifty years of combined experience in the field to make The Talking Machine, An Illustrated Compendium 1877-1929 the most accurate and complete work on antique talking machines for the novice or advanced collector. |
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"Columbia
Phonograph Companion Volume 1" Howard Hazelcorn ISBN 0-9606466-5-4 Published 1999 Mulholland Press REVIEW © www.phonophan.com website: The alpha and the omega of the Columbia cylinder Graphophone. All models discussed in detail and illustrated, even the most obscure. A must for any antique phonograph collector. A price guide gives current values. Contains articles by such other experts as George F. Paul and Raymond Wile. Hardcover. |
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"Antique Phonographs Gadgets,
Gizmos & Gimmicks" Timothy Fabrizio & George Paul ISBN 0-7643-0733-9 Published 1999 Schiffer Publishing REVIEW © Schiffer Publishing: Antique phonographs enjoyed a vigorous commercial existence 100 years ago. The market they inhabited was as filled with options, accessories, gadgets and gizmos as today's late-night television is populated with slicers, dicers, car waxes and beauty secrets. Collectors have acquired, examined and used these peripherals for years, but little has been written about them. In an effort to reveal more about the fascinating accessories, horns, storage cabinets, advertising and ephemera which surrounded the antique phonograph, the authors have examined nearly 20,000 pages of primary documents, and photographed examples from over 35 collections. Over 500 colour photographs illustrate nearly 700 items from the early years of recorded sound. To finally discover this long-lost aspect of the antique phonograph hobby is something akin to Dorothy's first faltering steps into the Land of Oz. The world is suddenly in Technicolor! There is suddenly more excitement, more romance, more fun--as readers of this book will happily discover. |
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"Discovering
Antique Phonographs 1877-1929" Timothy Fabrizio & George Paul ISBN 0-7643-1048-8 Published 2000 Schiffer Publishing REVIEW © Schiffer Publishing: Out of attics and barns, out from under the dust of a century, out of collections far and wide come these spectacular survivors of the phonograph's early years. In 1996, the authors began writing a history of recorded sound. After two successful books, they have continued travelling, researching and documenting these wonderful machines. Few could have imagined how much remained to be discovered! Out of these further explorations, this gorgeous new book has come to life--illustrating entirely different talking machines. Through over 400 beautiful colour illustrations, follow the progress of the acoustic talking machine from its crude beginnings in the 1870s to its most splendid and sophisticated heights in the early 20th century. An unparalleled archive of rare, fascinating, and previously undocumented objects has been assembled. The story behind the beautiful, bright machinery is told through clear and insightful descriptions, revealing many previously unpublished facts. A value guide will further enlighten the collector on the modern marketplace. Be ready to embark on an astounding journey. Prepare to discover the incredible variety and endearing charm of the antique phonograph. |
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"Tinfoil Phonographs" Rene' Rondeau ISBN 0-9622219-4-5 Published 2001 REVIEW © www.phonophan.com website: Master researcher Rene Rondeau travelled the globe creating this comprehensive archive of the very EARLIEST sound recording apparatus: "Tinfoil Phonographs," so called because they recorded by indenting sheets of tinfoil. This first chapter of recorded sound history lasted about ten years, beginning in 1878, but surviving artefacts are fabulously rare. Mr. Rondeau provides detailed, close up, b & w photos of every significant example of Tinfoil Phonograph known to exist. Plus lots of historical data. Quality-size paperback, 168 pages. Packed with illustrations. |
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"Antique Phonograph
Advertising" Timothy Fabrizio & George Paul ISBN 0-7643-1517-X Published 2002 Schiffer Publishing REVIEW © Schiffer Publishing: In this, their fifth collaboration, award-winning authors Timothy C. Fabrizio and George F. Paul examine the fascinating and collectible field of phonograph advertising. Whether pragmatic, inspirational, or merely avaricious, talking machine promotion assumed a variety of mantles during its first fifty years. Charming trade cards, brightly lithographed posters, flamboyant letterheads, and a wide variety of bizarre objects emblazoned with marketing slogans were used to sell phonographs and records during the 1877-1929 period. Additionally, phonograph records were used as a medium for promoting products as disparate as toothpaste, automobiles, and presidents. Indulge yourself with this visual feast of 450 colour illustrations of phonograph and record marketing from yesteryear, plus detailed captions, values, and an insightful text |
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"Antique Phonographs
Accessories & Contraptions" Timothy Fabrizio & George Paul ISBN 0-7643-1763-6 Published 2003 Schiffer Publishing REVIEW © Schiffer Publishing: Antique phonographs enjoyed a vigorous commercial existence 100 years ago. The market they inhabited was as filled with options, accessories, gadgets and gizmos as today's late-night television is populated with slicers, dicers, car waxes and beauty secrets. Collectors have acquired, examined and used these peripherals for years, but little has been written about them. In an effort to reveal more about the fascinating accessories, horns, storage cabinets, advertising and ephemera which surrounded the antique phonograph, the authors have examined nearly 20,000 pages of primary documents, and photographed examples from over 35 collections. Over 500 colour photographs illustrate nearly 700 items from the early years of recorded sound. To finally discover this long-lost aspect of the antique phonograph hobby is something akin to Dorothy's first faltering steps into the Land of Oz. The world is suddenly in Technicolor! There is suddenly more excitement, more romance, more fun--as readers of this book will happily discover. |
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"The
Compleat Talking Machine (Fourth Edition)" Eric L. Reiss ISBN 1-886606-18-8 Published 2003 Sonoran Publishing REVIEW © www.phonophan.com website: The only real maintenance and restoration guide in the field. Now available in a brand new, fourth edition. The same great information, with an updated price guide |
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"Comprehensive
Cylinder Index, Part 3 Edison Blue Amberols" Duane D. Deakins NO ISBN Published 1959 Unknown Publisher This index is the famous Dr. Duane Deakins' list of cylinders, completed in 1960 |
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"A Catalogue Of
'Sterling' Records" Sydney H. Carter / Frank Andrews SBN 902338 22 6 Published 1975 Talking Machine Review REVIEW © www.clpgs.co.uk website: Numerical listing of company with illustrations. History introduction by Frank Andrews. |
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"A
Catalogue Of 'Clarion' & 'Ebinoid' Records" Sydney H. Carter / Frank Andrews SBN 902338 29 3 Published 1977 Talking Machine Review REVIEW © www.clpgs.co.uk website: A numerical listing by Sydney Carter. |
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"Edison Bell Cylinders - A
Listing" Sydney H. Carter / Frank Andrews SBN 902338 31 5 Published 1977 Talking Machine Review REVIEW © www.clpgs.co.uk website: A numerical listing of Gold Moulded recordings from 1904-1913. large format stapled paperback. |
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"Billy
Williams Records: A Study In Discography" Frank Andrews & Ernie Bayly SBN 902338 02 1 Published 1982 Talking Machine Review REVIEW © www.clpgs.co.uk website: A complete discography with cross index notes, rare monochrome illustrations an elderly but popular item with Members |
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"Edison
Cylinder Records, 1889-1912" by Allen Koenigsberg ISBN 0937612073 Published 1987 REVIEW © www.amazon.com & author's websites: This is the most complete work on the earliest history of recorded sound, covering the phonograph from its invention as a novelty to an established industry. New material is continually being added, and readers are invited to contact the author with any questions about early records or phonographs. Covers over 10,000 wax cylinders, 2" & 5", 2-minute & 4-minute, brown and black wax, labels. |
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"The
Sir Harry Lauder Discography" Darrell Baker & Larry F. Kiner ISBN 0-8108-2384-5 Published 1990 The Scarecrow Press REVIEW © www.amazon.co.uk website: Lauder (1870-1950), the Scottish singer, actor, and songwriter, was a famed silent film actor and star of both American vaudeville and British music hall. In addition to providing a complete discography, this illustrated reference offers a biographical sketch, a complete filmography, an extensive biography. |
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"Edison
Blue Amberol Recordings, 1912-1914" Ronald Dethlefson ISBN 0-9606466-3-4 Published 1997 Stationary X-Press REVIEW © www.phonophan.com website: The story of Edison's famous cobalt-coloured records, and reprints of the descriptive record slips which accompanied them for the first years of production. VOLUME 1 of the two volume series |
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"Edison Blue Amberol Recordings,
1912-1914: Companion Volume" Ronald Dethlefson ISBN 0-9606466-4-4 Published 1997 Stationary X-Press |
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"Edison Blue Amberol Recordings, 1915-1929" Ronald Dethlefson ISBN 0-9606466-4-4 Published 1999 Mulholland Press REVIEW © www.phonophan.com website: 504 pages in massive softcover. Until this new edition was issued recently, original copies of the out-of-print edition were selling for phenomenal prices! Illustrations from original documents. Anyone interested in cylinder records should own a copy of this large, well-produced work. Packed with information. |
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"Cylinder
Lists: Columbia Brown Wax, XP, 20th Century BC &
Indestructible - Extra Pages Added" Duane Deakins NO ISBN Reprinted 2000 Tim Gracyk REVIEW © Tim Gracyk's Home Page website: Rare cylinder & phonograph industry information is reprinted in one handy book of 220 pages. Listed are all known brown wax Columbia cylinders, two-minute black wax Columbia cylinders, and celluloid Indestructible cylinders. Starts off with a Columbia Phonograph Company catalogue dated November 1896, followed by a 60 page section listing Columbia's brown wax and two-minute black wax cylinders, followed by a list of Twentieth Century cylinders (these are Columbia's LONG cylinders, very rare), followed by Duane Deakin's index to Indestructible cylinders, followed by dozens of great pages from the trade journal Talking Machine World. |
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"Index
To US Everlasting Cylinders - Extra Pages Added" Duane Deakins NO ISBN Reprinted 2000 Tim Gracyk REVIEW © Tim Gracyk's Home Page website: Book includes an accurate 25-page index (compiled by Duane Deakins around 1960) giving all titles and artists on U-S Everlasting cylinders; next, a 1924 booklet from the Victor company titled "Instructions for the Setting-up, Operation & Care of the Victrola"; a rare catalogue (several pages) of the American Record Company (this is the company that used the image of an Indian on the record labels); a rare Zon-o-phone catalogue dated July 1906 (several pages); two personal letters sent by Vernon Dalhart in 1925; a letter to Theodore Edison about radio frequency bands; an interesting letter dated 1911 from Victor's Eldridge R. Johnson to the Edison Company (about legal and other matters); a letter from the Edison company to Johnson; a multi-page memo dated Oct. 5, 1911, from an Edison executive (Frank L. Dyer, President of the company) urging inventor Thomas A. Edison to merge the Edison company with the Columbia Graphophone Company (Edison declined, obviously--this is a fascinating memo since it describes in detail the state of Columbia at this time and the state of Edison's company); dozens of pages from Talking Machine World about everything under the sun regarding phonographs, needles manufacturers, record artists. Information about Delphion phonographs, the Motorola device (this winds machines), new blues records issued by the Arto Record Company (photo of Lucille Hegamin), new Sonora phonographs introduced, article announcing Al Jolson signing with Brunswick (Feb. 1924), article on members of the Okeh recording lab going to Chicago to make records (July 1924--Arthur Bergh managed the lab at this time, Fred Hager having resigned), article on Gennett issuing records of "Old Time Mountain Tunes," article on Victor making records in Atlanta, Georgia (June 1927), etc. State of the art xeroxing technology used, spiral binding. |
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"Edison Blue Amberol By
Number (Second Edition)" W.S. & R.K. Wimmer ISBN 0-9709961-0-1 Published 2001 Wimmer Publishing Company. Contact publisher wimmerpublishingco@starband.net Review © Geo. M. Meiser, IX, president of the Historical Society of Berks County, PA. In years gone by, there have been collectors' publications that listed Blue Amberol selections alphabetically (not unlike the original catalogs) or listed the recordings by artist, neither of which is very helpful in view of the fact that dealers frequently list recordings only by number. That being the case, the Wimmers' "Edison Blue Amberol" compilation is an absolute necessity for the serious collector. |
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"Edison Blue Amberol By
Title" W.S. & R.K. Wimmer ISBN 0-9709961-1-X Published 2002 Wimmer Publishing Company. Contact publisher wimmerpublishingco@starband.net Review © Geo. M. Meiser, IX, president of the Historical Society of Berks County, PA. In years gone by, there have been collectors' publications that listed Blue Amberol selections alphabetically (not unlike the original catalogs) or listed the recordings by artist, neither of which is very helpful in view of the fact that dealers frequently list recordings only by number. That being the case, the Wimmers' "Edison Blue Amberol" compilation is an absolute necessity for the serious collector. |
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"Edison Blue Amberol By
Artist" W.S. & R.K. Wimmer ISBN 0-9709961-2-8 Published 2002 Wimmer Publishing Company. Contact publisher wimmerpublishingco@starband.net Review © Geo. M. Meiser, IX, president of the Historical Society of Berks County, PA. In years gone by, there have been collectors' publications that listed Blue Amberol selections alphabetically (not unlike the original catalogs) or listed the recordings by artist, neither of which is very helpful in view of the fact that dealers frequently list recordings only by number. That being the case, the Wimmers' "Edison Blue Amberol" compilation is an absolute necessity for the serious collector. |
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"Edison,
Lambert Concert Records & Columbia Grand Records and Related
Phonographs" George A. Copeland & Ron Dethlefson ISBN 0-9606466-8-4 Published 2004 Mulholland Press. Contact publisher r2deth@pacbell.net Review © Ron Dethlefson. The Five-Inch Cylinder Book, development & discography 1898-1911. 148 pages with 156 illustrations by Dethlefson / Copeland |
3. LP Recordings Of Early Cylinders
These LP records contain transfers of both rare (19th century) recordings & later "popular" selections from the early 20th Century. You may find copies on auction websites such as www.ebay.com, from time to time. Click on thumbnail to view covers and track lists full-size.
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"The Wonder Of The Age - Mr Edison's New Talking Machine"
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"Phono-Cylinders Volume 1"
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"Dawn Of A Century, Volume 1"
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Page last edited Friday, 08 April 2005 |  |
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