|
Welcome to the Edison page.
Recordings of Edison Diamond Disk records.
Hear Edison saying those famous words.
Some pictures of my Edison C-19 plus a period pix of the store where it was bought, and a cool sales ad.
The Edison motor repair manual
Cylinder Records Some are Edison's, some are not.
An Excel database of every Edison diamond disk record ever made.
My
Edison Standard B phonograph.
My
Restored Edison Amberola 30. 
My
Recently Restored Edison B-80. 
I did not know about the Edison Diamond Disk Phonograph until my brother, who once collected phonographs mentioned they were the finest of their time. He was correct.
There are numerous advantages beside
superior sound, the main one being that it has a diamond stylus (hence the name
Diamond Disk. You didn't think the records were made of diamonds did you?
). The standard Edison diamond
disk came only in a ten inch disk and could pack more sound into that 10
inches than Victor's 12 inch or the Pathé 14 inch.
One other consideration is the superiority of the vertical recording method. The records just do not wear out, unless played with a damaged needle or otherwise abused. With lateral cut standard 78RPM records used by Victor (and the rest of the mainstream non-Edison universe), the steel needle wears out the sides of the groove so that after a number of plays the needle is literally crashing around in all the extra space it has carved out in the groove, creating distortion. Plus the fragmenting of the steel needle acts like sandpaper in the groove creating more wear and damage. Most of my Victor records have that damage if they were played much. The less played sides have less distortion. With the Edison however, using a vertically moving diamond (and the Pathé a vertically moving sapphire ball), it does not wear out the sides. All my Edison (and Pathé) records lack that "worn out record" sound even though the newest have been around since Calvin Coolidge This was a major selling point at the time. Pathé advertised that their records would play 10,000 times without damage.
Edison was also the first to come out with the long play record in 1926. His 12 inch disk could hold 24 minutes per side, but it required expensive alterations to the phonograph and a different reproducer. Add to that, the record changer was becoming all the rage. Some contemporary sources have said that the records suffered from a weak sound level. (I had one person write to me after viewing this site saying that he been playing Edison Long Play records for years and found no problems with the sound level.) It became abundantly clear that he was just too far ahead of the times and Long Play bombed. They would have to wait another 20 years before it became practical and popular. Edison diamond discs did not lend themselves easily to record changers, so none were ever commercially produced, albeit a prototype still exists. Still it was too late in the end game for Edison for either approach.
From these alone it can be rightly said that the Edison was the first truly modern record player.
One or more of your Edison records missing a white paper label? Make your own with this downloadable template graphic file. Just open it in either Adobe Photoshop or compatible program, add the info onto the template using the text tool, and print. Some resizing might be needed since all printers are a little different in formatting. No tech support provided. If anyone out there knows of a free font that looks just like the Edison font, please drop me an email so I can add it to this page.
The Following is an interesting ad with Thomas Edison listening to a C19 Chippendale like mine.
