Contents from Wikipedia
The Columbia Phonograph Company
was originally the local company run by Edward Easton,
distributing and selling Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington,
D.C., Maryland and Delaware, and derives its name from the District of Columbia,
which was its headquarters. As was the custom of some of the regional phonograph
companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own, and
its catalogue of musical records in 1891 was 10 pages. Columbia's ties to Edison
and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American
Phonograph Company's breakup, and thereafter sold only records and phonographs of
its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the "XP" record, a molded brown
wax record, to use up old stock. Columbia introduced "black wax" records in 1903,
and, according to Tim Gracyk, continued to mold brown waxes until 1904; the highest
number known to Gracyk is 32601, "Heinie", which is a duet by Arthur Collins and
Byron G. Harlan. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have been sold
to Sears for distribution (possibly under Sears' "Oxford" trademark for Columbia
products).[5] Columbia began selling disc records and phonographs in addition to
the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their "Toy Graphophone" of 1899, which
used small, vertically cut records. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the
Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc
records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound.
In order to add
prestige to its early catalog of artists, Columbia contracted a number of New York
Metropolitan Opera stars to make recordings (from 1903 onwards). These stars included
Marcella Sembrich, Lillian Nordica, Antonio Scotti and Edouard de Reszke, but the
technical standard of their recordings were not considered to be as high as the
results achieved with classical singers during the pre–World War I period by Victor,
Edison, England's His Master's Voice or Italy's Fonotipia Records. After an abortive
attempt in 1904 to manufacture discs with the recording grooves stamped into both
sides of each disc—not just one—in 1908 Columbia commenced successful mass production
of what they called their "Double-Faced" discs, the 10-inch variety initially selling
for 65 cents apiece. The firm also introduced the internal-horn "Grafonola" to compete
with the extremely popular "Victrola" sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company.
A Columbia type AT cylinder graphophone, first released in 1898[6] During this era,
Columbia used the famous "Magic Notes" logo—a pair of sixteenth notes (semiquavers)
in a circle—both in the United States and overseas (where this particular logo would
never substantially change).
Columbia stopped recording and manufacturing wax cylinder
records in 1908, after arranging to issue celluloid cylinder records made by the
Indestructible Record Company of Albany, New York, as "Columbia Indestructible Records".
In July 1912, Columbia decided to concentrate exclusively on disc records and stopped
manufacturing cylinder phonographs although they continued selling Indestructible's
cylinders under the Columbia name for a year or two more.