Welcome to David's Antiques !

You will find on this site our attempts to understand and restore early sound recordings.

Click here for more information about the PALEOPHONIES shop

This early 1878 phonograph used a special lead cylinder which allowed recording permanently. Incredibly, this machine survived with most of its original recordings. Except for a clearly audible hours count, nobody has deciphered the rest of the cylinder so far. I have personally listened and cleaned the original audio file, and, in our opinion, understood most of what remains on the cylinder.

Soon after completing his perfected phonoghraph in 1888, Thomas Edison sent a few machines to personnalities like Colonel Gouraud and Gustave Eiffel who recorded white wax cylinders. One of the surviving cylinders is this great piano solo recorded in late 1888. This page contains our personal attempts to remove imperfections and improve the sound quality.

So far as I know, this is the sole page featuring French phonograph cylinders featuring popular and legendary artists. One cylinder will be posted each month.

This page covers misc details around the phonograph.