I recently picked up what certainly appears to be a box full of 28 New Old
Stock Edison two minute Black Wax cylinders from around 1902-1903. The boxes
were right on the cusp of the change over from the Box which included Echo All
over the World (without the term Gold Moulded), to the First Boxes to use that
term in late 1903. What convinced me that these boxes and cylinders were new
old stock, is that all 28 Cylinders were each carefully wrapped in cotton, and
some still had the remnants of the old paraffin paper that was wrapped around
the cotton. Now the hard part. Since I am equally into to Records as I am into
old Phonographs, and enjoy playing my new finds, I certainly wanted to see if
these records were playable. This certainly was questionable as the lady that
sold them to me, said that they had been stored for many years in the Attic of
an Old House, and had somehow managed to be salvaged, along with a nice
converted (2 & 4 minute) Standard B Edison Phonograph, from
a horrendous fire that destroyed the house many years ago. The seller said she
was always afraid to remove the tightly packed cylinders from the boxes,
because they were so fragile and she feared breaking them. I decided when I got
this box of cylinders home to open maybe half of them to test out the condition
of the cylinders. I was able to remove them by grasping the inner projected
edges of the spiral inside the cylinders and gently nudging them out.
Unfortunately, the pressure of the tight packing against the grooves all these
years,along with the extremes of heat and cold had from the attic storage had
taken its toll on the playability of these early Two Minute Black Wax
cylinders, and you could play and understand the selection but the continuous
loud scratching sound, made them undesirable for listening enjoyment. Still it
was the very first time I have happened across any new/old stock cylinders, and
the boxes themselves are not that common, they are shown as Types D
E & F on Page 153 Allen's ECR "Edison Cylinder Records" 1889-1912, and I do
still have about half the boxes untouched and undisturbed remaining in their
original New Old Stock form complete with the cotton and remaining parafin
wrapping just as they left the Factory back in 1902-1903.
Bruce
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