Broken Cylinder Records

[DavidC]

Hello All,

 

I have (unfortunately) a box of  broken cylinder records. Most are 2 minute Edison and a few brown wax.

This is the byproduct of years of buying "box lot" cylinders.

Is there any useful purpose these might serve? Thought I would ask before they are tossed out.

 

Thanks,

DaveC

[MisterJive47]

Honestly, the only ones that I can see a possible use for would be the brown wax, as I believe that those can be melted down and recast in a mold to make a new blank. Gold moulded and black amberol are pretty much useless in a broken state. The only time they might be worth saving is if it is a one of a kind or super rare recording that has yet to be archived. A few hard-core collectors and archivists have a special mandrel for holding the broken pieces in order to play and copy it to an mp3.

[CurtA]

You might try melting them down to make Edison candles... but that seems to defeat the purpose of Edison light bulbs.

[MisterJive47]

On 9/25/2023 at 8:48 AM, CurtA said:

You might try melting them down to make Edison candles... but that seems to defeat the purpose of Edison light bulbs.

That would be acceptable to Edison, just so long as the wick operates on direct flame, rather than an alternating flame 😉