Edison Phonograph
Although Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877 it took nearly 20 years for the machines to begin appearing in the American home. The early machines which played using a strip of tinfoil were thought of by Edison as not much more than a curiosity. In the mid 1880's he was approached by Chicester Bell and Sumner Tainter who had developed a better method of recording. At this time Edison was more interested in electricity and informed them he wasn't interested. This was a very large mistake because the patents held by these 2 gentlemen were the foundation of the phonographs produced by the Graphophone company.
During the 1880's and 90's there were very few homes wired for electricity and wet cell batteries were used to power the phonographs. That and the fact that these machines were very expensive meant that very few could be found in the home. Most often the phonograph was to be found in the penny arcades of the day. They were very good money makers which did not sit well with Edison as he didn't like the idea of his invention being used as entertainment. During this time the cylinders were made of wax and the sounds produced were very faint which meant it was necessary use listening tubes (much like stethoscopes) to hear the sounds.
During the 1880's many improvements were made in the Edison phonographs which led to production of a very reliable and rugged product. Edison was in the process of developing a loyal customer base mostly composed of the small towns and farming communities where most of the America population lived at that time. Many millions of machines were sold and that kind of sales may have continued except that the flat disks used be Victor and Columbia produced both louder and better sound reproduction than the Edison cylinder. By 1902/03 the disk manufactures had improved their manufacturing process and improved the sound quality. Add to this the longer playing times of the disk resulted in them catching up with Edison.
Even with the attempts made by Edison to improve the cylinder 1903 saw the peak of cylinder production. From this time on the disk phonographs outsold the Edison cylinders. Edison continued to work on improvements to the cylinder but the stage had already been set and the disk phonographs were the future. The last of the 'outside' horn phonographs were sold around 1915 Edison did continue to produce an internal horn machine known as the Amberola until around 1919.