Amberol and Blue Amberol Cylinders

Edison's Blue Amberol Record

10" records were introduced in 1901, followed by 12" records in 1903. These records were capable of three to four minutes of playback, while Edison's cylinders were only capable of around two minutes of playback. Because of the advantages that discs had over cylinders, Edison created the Blue Amberol cylinder, first introduced in 1912, which was capable of up to four minutes of playback at 160 rpm. The Blue Amberol replaced the original Amberol cylinder Edison created which was also capable of four minutes of playback,but often shattered when they broke. The surface of the Blue Amberol was made of celluloid, a plastic that was less fragile than what the original Amberols were made from, it was also able to be played many times without breaking. Although Edison had made these improvements to the cylinder, the discs had an upper hand as the cylinders consumers started to drop significantly.

Sources:
"Edison Blue Amberol Cylinders (1912-1929)." Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. University of California Santa Barbara. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-blueamberol.php>.