wax cylinder
Phonograph recording format
A wax cylinder is an early audio recording medium—a hollow cylinder coated in wax that captured sound through grooves cut into its surface.
Thomas Edison's phonograph used wax cylinders before flat disc records replaced them in the early twentieth century.
The format is now obsolete, though collectors and archivists preserve historical recordings: The library digitized its collection of wax cylinders from the 1890s.
- phonographGrooved disc audio player
- EdisonProlific American inventor
- Menlo ParkNew Jersey invention site
- recordingCaptured audio or video
- sound recordingCaptured audio stored permanently
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- audiosound, headphones, audio track, volume control, sound recording
- analog techvinyl, cassette, VHS, film, tape
- audio mediavinyl, LP, CD, cassette, 8-track
- obsolete technologyVHS, 8-tracks, VHS tapes, cassette tape, cassette tapes
- old-fashionedantique, antiques, gramophone, phonograph, horse and buggy
- recorderstape recorder, voice recorder, video recorder, digital recorder, cassette recorder
wax cylinderstreaming audio
Online sound transmission
compact disc · CD · MP3 · vinyl record · LP
wax cylinderstreaming
Real-time digital delivery
cloud storage · MP3 · digital audio · digital download · high-resolution audio
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