3-070-069 - LTL/Heritage Images

A "prima donna" singing by using Edison's phonograph receiver, 1878. 'New York - Wonders of Science: A prima donna singing into Edison's phonograph receiver'. Phonograph cylinders (also referred to as Edison cylinders after their creator Thomas Edison) are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Known simply as "records" in their heyday (c1896-1916), a name since passed to their disc-shaped successors, these hollow cylindrical objects have an audio recording engraved on the outside surface which can be reproduced when they are played on a mechanical cylinder phonograph. From "La Ilustración Española y Americana", 1878.