Officially Thomas A. Edison, Inc. - Phonograph Division, although this name does not appear on releases. American record company that produced cylinder and disc records between 1911-1929.
This company was chartered on February 28, 1911 to combine Edison's diversified companies, including the Edison Blue Amberol Record) and the company's entry into the disc market.
Edison's discs were unique items in the record market, and the public was slow to embrace them. They weighed nearly a pound each and bore etched labels that were barely legible. Neither artist credits nor catalog numbers appeared on the labels. Catalog numbers were stamped into the wide outer edge, and artist names appeared only on accompanying paper sleeves. Moreover, Edison employed a vertical ("hill and dale") cutting process, and the exceptionally fine grooves required a special reproducer fitted with a permanent diamond stylus and driven by a mechanical feed. In short, Edison "Diamond Discs" were playable only on Edison machines, and those machines were expensive compared to phonographs marketed by rival companies. Furthermore, these machines could play standard lateral-cut discs only if they were fitted with an after-market adaptor. To make matters worse, Edison took an active and direct role in selecting the music issued on labels bearing his name, and his musical tastes and instincts were not very sophisticated (and he was nearly deaf). Instead of issuing some of the finest operatic recordings then made by his company on his initial disc releases, Edison opted instead for two "coon songs" ("Moonlight in Jungle land" and "Down Below the Mason-Dixon Line"). These problems and others would plague Edison's company for the rest of its existence.
Always the inventor, Edison developed and released long-playing records in 1927, fully 21 years before Columbia released its first 10" LPs. Two formats of these 80-rpm fine-groove discs were produced - a 24-minute (10") and 40-minute (12") record. However, various problems plagued these records. The narrow grooves were prone to mistracking and premature wear, and volume levels and sound quality were inferior to standard Edison discs. The Edison Long Playing Record failed to attack interest among consumers, and only eight 10" and six 12" records were issued.
Edison was also late to make the conversion from acoustical to electrical recording. While most of the recording industry had converted to electrical recording in 1925-26, Edison clung to the acoustic process he had invented almost fifty years earlier. After his son, Charles Edison succeeded his father as president and chief executive of the company and took over supervision of the record division, the company finally converted to electrical recording in mid-1927. When these records finally appeared, they were promoted as using "Mr. Edison's secret process of recording", but these actually used General Electric equipment that Edison had nothing to do with developing.
The company continued to champion vertically cut records long after every other record company had switched to the laterally cut format. Following a by now familiar pattern, Edison finally began experimenting with the lateral cut in 1927, but these new Needle Type records were not shipped to dealers until July 1929, by which time the phonograph division was in deep trouble. The company stood by the obsolete cylinder format well into 1929, even as initial pressing orders for new releases fell to just one-hundred copies. The company finally announced cessation of commercial cylinder production in July 1929. After more than 40 years, Edison's involvement in the cylinder record business came to a bitter end. Charles Edison issued orders on October 26 to discontinue Blue Amberol sales, fire the cylinder division employees and burn the remaining cylinder record inventory. Remaining Amberola phonographs had already been sold for scrap.
By summer 1929 the company was preparing to abandon Diamond Disc production as well. By August all new masters were to be recorded only in lateral-cut form. Production of new Diamond Disc releases was suspended in mid-September. From that point, all new releases were to appear only as Needle Types. However, within weeks Edison executives concluded that the Phonograph Division would be dismantled. Internal memos showed that the division had been losing money since 1912 and had been kept afloat largely by diverting profits from Edison's more successful operations. The last Needle Type records were listed for release on October 18, 1929. On November 8, 1929 the general public was informed that Edison had suspended record production.