Seeking info on a 2 minute Ivory-White Cylinder

[wdjensen123]

Hi there,

I just got a 2 minute wax cylinder that is white to tan-ivory in color, much paler than the lightest brown ones I have seen on the web. The announcement does not help, it just says "Glory" after which follows a talking speech about monuments, remembering times past, and famous people. The inside of the record is a spiral about 3/4 inch wide between the ridges, like I have seen in other brown wax records.

Question: what Is this thing? Is it an Edison product? Can it be dated? Can anyone look it up in some sort of reference? Is it rare?

Anyone collect them? Thank you very much. Sincerely, Bill Jensen

[sonnyphono]

If I am not mistaken, the lighter the color of the cylinder, the earlier it was made. This is generally the case, but not always.

I don't know anything about what you have, but these sort of finds are very interesting in my opinion. Half the fun is doing the research to track down what exactly it may be that you have. Can you date it by the monuments mentioned? Is there a monument or other hint mentioned that may have been built after the turn of the century?

Regardless, please keep us posted if you find any information.

[borrilabs]

Color has no bearing on age. I make blank metallic soap cylinders and the first ones out of the batch are a cream color, and by the time the batch is used up the same batch of wax produces dark brown, almost black blanks, I have repeated this many times on many boards, I feel like a broken record (pun intended) LOL. but I guess if you have never made brown wax blanks, then how would you know? The metallic soap wax from which brown wax cylinders are moulded , oxidizes because the molding temperature is well above 350 degrees F. Granted in the old days, they made quite considerable amounts of compound, about 1200 lbs batches, while this cooking took a long, time, there was so much mass, that when divided between the smaller molding kettles, the wax was enough that the color was not so marked of change, as if you made the initial batch in small quantities however if you use a more gentle heat and cook it over a longer period of time, where the wax does not smoke, you will get lighter colored cylinders. Color is Not attributed to different formulas, what I mean hear is the fact that the compounds of Edison and Columbia brown wax cylinders were so similar as to not vary that much in content from one batch to another. When I make a batch of the aluminum soap from which brown wax is made, I use a Ohaus laboratory balance and try to keep the batches consistent with an accuracy of one tenth gram. I could make and mold cylinders for you to prove this and I have some photographs of cylinders I have made I have made about 12,000 of them. Not very much I am sure but enough to learn from non the less.