After a 10 year break from his tinfoil in 1887, Edison re-entered the sound recording market in 1887 with the 'Spectacle Model' phonograph. Conceived as a tool for the office environment it used a new lead soap and wax cylinder, and was named after the appearance both reproducer and recorder sitting next to each other on the arm. Unfortunately it was too expensive and cumbersome for the home market who were the main buyers of the new entertainment device. This market was hard to ignore, both the Edison and the Graphophone company released new lighter machines with recording attachments that fitted most of home machines. These could also be used to play a pre-recorded cylinders.

Unlike the Dictaphone, Edison does not trademark his business recording machine Ediphone until 1907 (not an exclusive trademark for his various dictating machines) and continues marketing the machines until 1929. Edisons marketing for both home and business machines is extensive, including length film advertisements such as 'The Stenographers Friend' in 1910.

"Shaving" the Wax Cylinders after Transcribing
The operation can be performed one hundred times on each cylinder.
Edison: The Stenographers Friend 1910

Madeleine Donovan, Intern, October, 2009

References
V.K. Chew, Science Museum Talking Machines, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1981
David Morton, Off The Record, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey & London, 2000
Oliver Read and Walter Welch, From Tin Foil to Stereo, Howard Sams & Co., New York, 1959
Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past, Duke University Pres, Durham & London, 2003

+ Cylinder shaving machines
+ Edison, Thomas A

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