Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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In a previous video filmed in collaboration with the Dalnavert House Museum, I covered the prehistory of sound recording and the technology’s early impact on popular music. In this follow-up, I take a closer look at an Edison “Fireside” Cylinder Phonograph to examine how these devices worked mechanically and how the technology developed over time.

0:00 Introduction
1:35 Early Phonograph History
3:04 The Graphophone
4:34 Early Failures
5:22 First Commercial Phonographs
6:25 Spring Motor Phonographs
8:33 Fireside Phonograph: External Features
12:10 Fireside Phonograph: Setup and Playback
12:48 Fireside Phonograph: Internal Features
14:23 Death of the Cylinder Record
16:00 Outro

History of Sound Recording Video: youtu.be/_2DRLhFviFE

SOURCES
Stress, Randall, The Wizard of Menlo Park, Crown Publishers, 2007
mus-col.com/en/collection/mmp/turntable/phonographs/15185
collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co117114/edison-fireside-phonograph-c-1909

intertique.com/EdisonPhonographTutorial.html

https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/43809/

intertique.com/IdentificationGuideIndex.html

loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/articles-and-essays/history-of-edison-sound-recordings/history-of-the-cylinder-phonograph

tnt-audio.com/vintage/edison_cylinders2_e.html