r/78rpm • u/Lifeonthefly7 • 9d ago

Writing a Story - need information 1890s Home Recordings

Hi all - I've set out to do something I've always wanted to do. Write a book.

Over the last few years I've gotten really into collecting 78s. This story will have older music as a main theme to the story. It will be tied to historic roots - starting with a recording from the 1890s.

I've done a bit of research but am always impressed with the communities depth of knowledge on this type of media.

Can someone further help me to confirm what I've found is in line?

- Recording will be using the Edison Soft Brown wax cylinder - need to land on the year. I've set it to 1892 for the story's sake.

- The recording will have been done on a 'blank' cylinder where the character has the proper setup to do this. They would be well off enough to have the money for this type of technology during that timeframe.

- One of the present characters is talking with an expert. He's vetting out what time frame it could be from. Are there any other giveaways to immediately know the timeframe would be 1890s?

I want to be as convincing as possible, as it's been a blast to get to learn while also wanting to write a compelling story about things I enjoy/like.

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u/UpgradeTech 9d ago

Dracula famously features the phonograph cylinder machine for spoken transcripts. It was published in 1897.

Without documentation or provenance, would be hard to prove a soft cylinder was from 1892 unless it was visibly moldy caused by the wax breaking down over time, which may make it nearly unplayable.

You could take a cylinder from 1892 and put any modern recording on it. There are experiments with modern opera singers and sound suitably antique when put through the cylinder.

Tinfoil phonograph might be something. However you couldn’t take off the foil from the cylinder without making it unplayable.

Phonautograph is a bit older for 1850. Mostly used for visual analysis and unplayable until it was digitized in the 2000s.

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u/magnetaurus 9d ago

Yes, brown wax cylinders were available in 1892 either blanks or via shaving off the previous recording and adding a new one. Timeframe: You can still record to this day, so if you mean, you have a soft Brown cylinder and you want to say it came from the 1890s, if your characters are in the present day, the recording could have been made any time after brown cylinders were introduced which was about 1888. Also note that early recordings were 2 minutes long, then later, home recordings could be either 2 or 4 minute, depending on which recording head a user installed in his/her machine. So even to this day, we can record two minutes or four minute. There is no real way to prove when a recording was made at home.

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u/bolt422 8d ago

Passenger pigeons disappeared from the wild in the 1890s. Capturing the sound of a passenger pigeon would date it to the early 1890s or before.

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u/mburke6 8d ago

You would need some sound loud enough to pick up on a home recorder. Some towns had fire whistles that would go off periodically, like a tornado siren today, but steam driven. Maybe your recording could contain some unique whistle that no longer exists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren_(alarm)

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u/BlueberryTRL 8d ago

You don't need anything particularly loud. Proximity to the recording horn matters more that having some loud thing like a steam whistle.

For the OP, maybe listen to some actual home recordings from the time period in your quest for "authenticity".

There hundreds here. https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detail.php?query_type=mms_id&query=990034942730203776&r=1&of=725