Question about black Amberols, metal ring at top

[collector60490]

I accidentally posted this in the wrong area... call me a Newbie... but here is the question:  I recently purchased a lot of 160 Amberols for my Edison players (It was a steal because they were inside a cabinet I was buying made to hold that many! The guy threw in the cylinders for free!) and the lot included 31 black wax (?) cylinders. These are VERY fragile, unlike the blue Amberols that can take a beating, relatively speaking. Not all of them have the Edison trade mark, and those that don't, look the same, but they have no numbers on them, just titles... and at the top, inside there is a metal ring. My question is..what are these? And who made them? Any ideas? These are all 4 minute cylinders and are marks 4M on the labels, but they do not have a manufacturers name.... Many thanks in advance!

[phonogfp]

As I posted in the other section, scroll about 1/3 down to see the cylinder section:

www.antiquephono.org/basic-antique-phonograph-operational-tips/

George P.

[collector60490]

Many thanks! It looks like those with the metal ring are indestructible cylinders... I must say I've fallen in love with these Edison cylinder players, so much so that I sold my Victrola to a friend and now have four versions of the Edison players!  They are a pure joy to listen to!

[phonogfp]

There are a number of different Edison types of cylinder players. Several of them are illustrated in this article titled, Encountering Antique Phonographs:

www.antiquephono.org/encountering-antique-phonographs/

The most common type of external horn Edison cylinder phonograph is the Standard, which appeared in 7 different Models (A-G) from 1898 through 1913. Here's an article that shows them all:

www.antiquephono.org/spotters-guide-edison-standard-phonograph/

The Antique Phonograph Society web site has a number of Introductory-level articles like these available to the general public. For APS members (30 dollars/year in the U.S.) there are many more articles and book features, as well as a 15,000+ page online archive of documents ranging from January 1890 to the present. Plus a 52-page full color quarterly journal mailed to you featuring about a dozen new articles in each issue.

George P.