Amberol

Amberol: Early Cylinder Recording System

Learn about Amberol, an early cylinder recording system developed by Thomas H. MacDonald and the National Phonograph Company, with its unique celluloid cylinders holding up to 4 minutes of audio.

What is Amberol?

Amberol was an early cylinder recording system developed by Thomas H. MacDonald and the National Phonograph Company in 1908. It was intended to compete with Edison's popular wax cylinder phonographs.

Amberols used celluloid cylinders that were more durable than the wax cylinders used by Edison. The celluloid Amberol cylinders could hold over 4 minutes of audio, almost twice as much recording time as Edison's 2 minute cylinders. This longer recording time was an important selling point for Amberol.

The Amberola phonograph models were designed specifically to play the 4 minute Amberol cylinders. The Amberola I was a basic tabletop model launched in 1909, followed by larger console models including the Amberola II, III and IV released over the next decade. The Amberola models helped boost the popularity of Amberol cylinders in the early 1910s.

Thousands of Amberol cylinders were produced featuring popular songs, classical and operatic music, band marches, poetry recitals and more. However sales and production declined in the late 1910s due to the rising popularity of disc records. The Amberola phonographs and Amberol cylinders were discontinued in the 1920s after legal disputes between MacDonald and the company's new owners.

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