Edison Bell
The Edison Bell Phonograph Corporation was formed in November 1892 and in January 1893, bought 20 key phonograph patents from Edison for £40,000. It based itself in “Edison House”, Northumberland Avenue, London, and settled down to enjoy a 10 year monopoly of the talking machine trade. Performance was lethargic and unimaginative, and very soon, illegal rivals were doing a brisk trade, among them James E. Hough. When enjoined by Edison Bell to stop trading in 1896, he negotiated a deal with them to carry on trading and the result was ‘Edisonia’, set up in June 1897. The public could now buy infringement free machines and records and Edison Bell kept overall control of the cylinder market till 1902 when its key Edison and Bell-Tainter patents expired. Edisonia and Edison Bell were incorporated together in 1898 to make the Edison Bell Consolidated Phonograph Co Ltd and with various vicissitudes, Edison Bell soldiered on until 1931. The last cylinders were announced in December 1913 for release in January 1914. Thereafter, only disc records were produced.
The Edisonia period. Cotillion March, played by George Rosey’s Orchestra of New York City. This record is listed in the orchestral selections for July 1898, and is an example of the recordings that Edisonia imported to supplement its catalogue. Russell Hunting, one of the early pioneers of the record industry announces the record and probably directed the recording sessions. It is likely that master records were made in New York which were then sent over to London for duplication. Only records recorded in London seem to have the “Made for Edisonia Ltd” announcement.
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The Edison Bell Consolidated period. (2036) The Golden Dustman, was originally created by Gus Elen and is here recorded by Harry Bluff who was one of James E. Hough’s original London Phonograph Co’s singers from pre-Edisonia days. Bluff was a young man with a powerful voice and a talent for mimicry who could imitate London performers and record master cylinders for duplication all day long, a process which would have been impossibly expensive with top artistes fees. This record is a wonderful snapshot in time of East End life and although it was still in the catalogue for the 1904 season, this particular example is from 1899 or early 1900.
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The Jolly Coppersmith (Carl Peter) by the London Regimental Band (Edison Bell 323) The piece was written in the early 1890s and was an instant favourite, to be found in almost all record catalogues of the time. The record is a “gold moulded" Edison Bell cylinder of 1905. The process involved rotating the master record in a vacuum jar between electrodes, one of which was a piece of gold. The electric current caused a molecular film of gold to be deposited on the wax master which enabled it to be electroplated with copper. Once the copper was thick enough, the master could be shrunk out and the copper shell could be mounted and used as a mould for hundreds of wax or celluloid copies.
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Casey Listening to the Phonograph. (Edison Bell 6584) Russell Hunting was famous for his “Casey” sketches. From the early 1890s, he had recorded countless master records of the adventures of his Irish character, Michael Casey. On this record, Casey, like thousands of other people at the time, has his first encounter with “one of these phonographical things” in a penny arcade. We hear his musings as the machine swallows his hard earned penny and begins to sing its out of date song slightly too fast, only to run out of spring power before the song is finished. The record playing is “Sweet Marie sung by Mr Eric Farr” and is itself some years out of date, too, for 1905; it is one of the company’s old duplicated “London” records and would have been a good three years old already!
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Fire Alarm. (Edison Bell 10068) Descriptive selections such as this one are of interest not only for their period detail, but also because they are a new form of entertainment which anticipates the radio play. Before this, you could listen to someone read, or see a play in the theatre. This new development allows you to listen to theatre, In this case, on this record of late 1906, you can see in your mind’s eye, the horror of a fire, the alarm, the horses being harnessed to the steam fire-engine and galloping as fast as they can to the scene of the drama, where a little girl trapped on the upper floor of a burning house, is rescued by a heroic fireman while the anxious mother waits below and bystanders look on. All ends well with a rollicking song to feed the adrenaline of the moment!
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