“I am the Edison Phonograph, created by the great wizard of the New World, to delight those who would have melody or be amused. I can sing you tender songs of love; I can give you merry tales and joyous laughter; I can transport you to the realms of music; I can call you to join in the rhythmic dance; I can lull the babe to sweet repose or waken in the aged heart soft memories of youthful days.”

These words were spoken by a wax cylinder in 1906, to introduce the world to the miracle of audio recording.

Before they recorded sound on discs, they used to record it on wax cylinders. My brother Kevin e-mailed me this link to the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project, a treasury of MP3 files made from these cylinders, with music and spoken word recordings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He also sent me a link to a New York Times article about the collection.