The Edison Cylinder Phonograph: How Audio Recording Changed the World

[@cwtrain]

Engagement comment. 'Drives me bonkers that this channel isn't viewed by millions. Keep on. You've got the right stuff.

[@stevebailey325]

I don’t get it either. Such great content.

[@randycampbell4196]

The channel seems to be finally taking off, and i cant help but think the massive library of great content really helps that.

[@muffinbra]

👍👍👍👍👍👍@@stevebailey325

[@daveb3910]

Same, it's wild

[@DalnavertMuseum]

Wow! What a beautiful room haha. Loved having you at the museum, Gilles! You're welcome back any time.

[@drk2535]

Excellent pertinent discussion for the historic scientific audiophile.

[@Ninjastahr]

I'm going back through your catalog, you deserve to be on the same level as Forgotten Weapons or Technology Connections, keep up the good work!

[@bassett_green]

Missed opportunity for a truly world-class rickroll

[@stephenhedman2161]

One of the most original, and interesting presentations on the internet. I always look forward to your next project Sir. Grateful. Regards from Vancouver, Canada. Stephen Hedman

[@caittails]

Wow, that recording of Nearer, My God, To Thee was so haunting. That song is haunting to me as it is, but wow. There was something really special about hearing it like this. What an awesome video!

[@michellecanfield8013]

I recently discovered your channel and am loving it. This is my favorite episode so far because talking machines are an interest of mine. Loved the interview with the museum curator as well as the cylinder playbacks. I look forward to exploring more of your channel.

[@jamesslick4790]

16:20 gives a new meaning to the phrase "You'll EAT those words" 😜 Also, I came here for the records, became fascinated with the history of the house! Very Cool! 👍👍As to music that is impossible without recording technology: The Beatles! Most of their later stuff CANNOT be done "live". I consider "tape" an instrument itself. This was the most enjoyable video I have seen in a while. There is many videos about the tech, but the "deep dive" in to the tech's impact was AWESOME!

[@Fruhmple]

At about the 40 minute mark, when you guys were discussing how the music composition could have been affected by the recording medium, I realized that a similar process happened in video game music. Digital recreation of analog sound took a while to perfect, and many video games had to fit on a cartridge, floppy disk, or a single CD. So the music in games had to be modified to fit those limitations. One game that comes to mind for me is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. The music in the game, I think, rivals the original John Williams scores, but had to be simplified to fit the size and bitrate limits of the time.

[@hitchpost5822]

The major advancement that these players brought was the ability to reproduce the human voice. They were some times called talking machines in fact Victor marketed a machine called the Victor talking machine. The earlier 2 minute cylinders are very sensitive to fast temperature changes, the cardboard tube they came in has a thick felt liner to slow changes in temperature which causes the cylinders to crack. I own a identical table top player to the one shown in the video.

[@firstsmoofy]

Hey Gilles. I enjoy your presentations very much. I collect antique electric fans. I wish you would do a history of the electric fan. It was so magical to be able to create a breeze where there was none.

[@BreakpointFun]

there's a guy that brakes an edison cylinder live on tv, by accident.his reaction is great 😂

[@justinnelson1565]

Ive often wondered how these worked, amazing!

[@daveys]

Really interesting discussion, thanks for making this!

[@ChrisAthanas]

These details really show that all technology is established through very human activities, good and bad

[@jeeprod1]

That poor little amberola 30 needs some adjusting, and I am shocked that nobody else has the courage to point out that anyone representing themselves as experts, or representing a museum should know their stuff. That machine needed some serious work on the governor to correct the wavy wobbly sound. The speed was also wrong, much too slow. With a little adjusting and some lubricaton any old machine can be made to play a cylinder correctly.

[@pghcoyote]

Agreed, but it sounds like a few cylinders may have also been out-of-round and in need of reaming the plaster to true them. I had just a few niggles on the history aspect, such as the statement of the Concert (5") cylinders being longer-playing. The main purpose of them was to increase the surface speed and thus volume. Edison continued to make Blue Amberols (albeit in small quantities, new issues being dubbed from Diamond Discs after a point) until the closure of the Phonograph Works in 1929. The thick, flat Diamond Disc records were so-called as playback used a permanent diamond stylus as opposed to disposable steel needles.

[@thomaswilliams2273]

​@@pghcoyoteYes. I have a reprint Sears 1900 catalog, and the Columbia Grand is advertised as being for playing in a large hall. The claim was that it was heard clearly by a crowd of 2,000. The package included tickets and stamps, and records for it were /only/ $1 apiece.

[@franksheahan1188]

Great content in these videos. I'm afraid that I couldn't follow the interview with the museum's curator. His sentences are broken up with filler words , mainly:" ah" and "am" to the extent that the points being made are lost. This is a great pity as I am sure that the house is very interesting. I gave up trying to follow the dialogue and skipped to the actual playing of the cylinders. This was very interesting.

[@critterjon4061]

Would like to imagine that there where some 1920s hipsters who go on at length about the sound quiz of cylinder phonographs when compared to disks

[@paulkocyla1343]

While building the phonautograph, dude needed some supports and stands. And instead of just taking a plank, he cared to cut the supports into beautiful art. We need this attitude again!!

[@larryhoey9250]

I have over forty Edison machines in my collection .. Fun !!

[@jamesslick4790]

I'm actually amazed that the cylinder format lasted as long as it did. I'm just going to assume "installed base" played the biggest part. Discs made more sense not only from the manufacturing end, but at the CONSUMER end. storage ALONE would have had me go to discs had I been a shopper when these two formats were competing. not only are discs easier to store (and store safely) than cylinders, they could have 2 tunes on 1 record!

[@Robert-Wilson]

I could not finish watching this. Just couldn’t take all the um um um.

[@jguth6]

Why did I look so far down for this comment!! Jesus the guy is such a bad speaker. He really shouldn’t have done this interview himself. Sure someone else at the museum could have

[@alb8758]

Heh heh, yeah I came here for this too, but I toughed it out for the rest of the video.

[@davey7452]

Interesting fact I heard a CBC interview with a retired anthropologist in the 1990s he recounted how from the 1930s to the 1950s he went to the Canadian north to interview Inuit elders and record their language the problem was many of these communities at the time had no electricity he couldn’t use vinyl or magnetic tape recorders the only practical thing available was Edison cylinder machines the recordings was supposed to have been deposited in the national archives where they were eventually recorded digitally.

[@hedgehog3180]

Knowing that an actual human ear was involved in the invention of the telephone feels like some 40K shit.

[@fazergazer]

This content is the best of the best ❤🎉

[@noahhess4955]

The host of the museum house gave some great information and I’m sure he doesn’t do media appearances often, but the amount of times he said “uh” during the interview made it almost unbearable to listen to.

[@jimmyday9536]

Interesting fact, the cylinder was actually technically superior to the disc, because the actual speed under the stylus is the same from beginning to end, unlike a disc record, where the speed under the stylus decreases towards the center.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

There seems to be a recording on Cylinder i.e "That's the Reason Noo I Wear the Kilt" written by Harry Lauder

[@mariekatherine5238]

We used to have a few cylindrical records. There was nothing to play them on, so they were probably thrown out! 😮

[@Udmudmudm]

La fedeltà è paragonabile alle prime piccole radio a transistor, niente male !!!

[@bailydenhouten1072]

That machine needs some serious maintenance. Perhaps a full motor rebuild and readjustment? Maybe a reproducer rebuild because rubber doesn't last 110 years. Geez. I've NEVER had BA records sound that bad. Ever.

[@RocketCityTech]

Very cool

[@richsackett3423]

Do all Winnipeggers have Irish accents?

[@Fred_Bender]

My mother had one of these in the 1920s .

[@chengong388]

I never understood how can these groves be soft enough to be engraved with a diaphragm but hard enough to withstand multiple playbacks.

[@TomFarrell-p9z]

Those German chocolate records had a really sweet sound! 🙂

[@Skibike69]

eem, eerr, emm, eh eh, emm, emm, err

[@AureliusR]

I feel bad for pointing it out too, but my GOD literally 30% of what this guy said was em and er and uh. I get being nervous, but my goodness. Public speaking lessons and things like the Toastmasters exist for a reason! If you're going to work at a museum you'd think being able to speak at length extemporaneously without constant pauses would be second nature.

[@jeffmitchell1931]

Omg ... so ah he ah grew up ah in ah...

[@joeedh]

Remakes are your friend

[@crystalsheep1434]

True marvel

[@oldgysgt]

I'm sorry, but all of the ah ah ah ah ah ah ah made the conversation on this video totally unwatchable. The museum needs to get a spokesperson without a speech impairment.

[@brerbear2437]

Someone get this museum guy public speaking lessons. He made this video unlistenable.

[@nilo9456]

Sigh, poor fellow made this video rather painful to listen to.

[@crazychild94]

I could uhh not finish. Uhh

[@michellecanfield8013]

Agree, but his content was fascinating.

[@michaelcox436]

Never heard anyone "umm... umm... uh... uh..." so much.

[@andys9678]

[@JonW77]

Erm... Um... Errr... Um... Erm.... Errr... Um.... Erm... Um... Errr... Um... Erm... Hmm... Um... Erm... Errr....

[@Landrew0]

Good AHM video.

[@dongordon4464]

"um" is not a word

[@AshesWorkshop]

Algorithm

[@Wolfganger]

UHMMMMM

[@schmutz1g]

ehmm ehhmm ehmmm ehmmm ehmmm ehmm ehm ehmm ermm ermm ehhm ehhm ehmm ehmm ehhm ehmm ermm ehhmm

[@ravvingar]

I can’t ehmm understand ehmm your accent ehmm

[@across_the_plane6800]

How can you dedicate so much time to edison without mentioning his questionable fraud?

[@nilo9456]

There's the problem of "The recieved narrative." Where in there is a bias toward simplification to the detment of fact.

[@johncoops6897]

That UMM guest ERRM speaker was UMM really UMMM bad at ERM speaking UMMmmm clearly. 😮

[@RFTFunkerAC]

Bell wasn't the inventor of the telephone😡 It's a german invention by Philipp Reis

[@ChrisAthanas]

These details really show that all technology is established through very human activities, good and bad