Edison cylinders are some of the earliest types of recorded media manufactured. In 1877, after lots of experimenting, Edison and his company came outn with the tinfoil phonograph. This would work by wrapping tinfoil around the spinning mandrel. You would spin that around, while talking into it. That would cause a recording head to etch a groove into the tinfoil, which could be played back later via the reproducer. There really are no tinfoil recordings left, since these would wear down quickly. you're not missing much. They were mainly just a novelty. No pre-recorded ones were ever made. The first "mass produced" cylinders were the Edison Brown wax cylinders. These were made in a quite interesting way. Multiple phonographs with a recording head on them would be set up in front of the artist. The artist would then perform in front of the multiple machines. Then, new cylinders would be put on the phonographs, and the artist would perform again. not necessarily the most efficient manner of producing recordings, to say the least. The Brown wax cylinders were also produced by some other companies besides Edison's National Phonograph Co. Most notably was the company Columbia, who made cylinders and phonographs as well. The problem of having artists record over and over again was solved in 1902, with the advent of the Gold Moulded Cylinder. These, as the name implied, were made from a mold. The artists only had to record once onto a master cylinder, which would be used to make a mold. Then, through a complex process, more cylinders would be made from the mold. This made the widespread distribution of recorded media much more simple. In 1908, an immprovement was made on this process with the introduction of the Amberol cylinders. These were stronger, and could play for twice as long. These were further refined with the introduction of Blue Amberol cylinders, which were made of celluloid, and are the least prone to breakage, but they have the unfortunate characteristic of shrinking, and warping. An interesting fact about the Blue Amberol cylinders is that they were often not recorded from a musician. Often, the master cylinder was made by playing a diamond disc into the recording apparatus. you can find many Blue amberol cylinders with the same titles as diamond discs. By 1929, cylinders were still being made, but were languishing in obsolescence, as they were far inferior to the quality of sound from shellac 78s, and even diamond discs. production ceased in 1929. Some blank brown wax cylinders were still being manufactured for several years afterwards, for use in office dicating machines, due to their easiness to record on, but besides that, cylinders stopped being a viable way to record and play music, but they will always remain a neat collector and hobbiest project.