Phonograph: A machine that can playback sound recordings (on wax, plastic, and celluloid cylinders) on a rotating platform where a pointed stylus glides across the record which then reproduces the sound grooves through a horn that can increase the sound of the recording. Later on, disc phonographs would also be made where the same, general, technology would reproduce sound from flat discs.
Wax Cylinders: Cylinder-shaped brown wax that is placed on a cylindrical rotating platform that can have sound waves etched into said wax, which can then be reproduced on a phonograph.
'Gold-Moulded' Records: Wax cylinders which are enveloped in a metal mold (which has trace levels of gold found within it) to prevent frequent mold damage and cracking, yet it was still quite fragile.
Amberol Records: The 'gold-moulded' records that had an increased number of sound grooves which could play music for up to 4 minutes instead of the previously standard 2 minutes.
Celluloid: A tough chemical form of plastic- or 'thermoplastic.'
Blue Amberol Records: 4-minute cylinder records made out of a blue celluloid material.
Diamond Disc: Edison's version of a disc record. It would be made out of a mix of wood-flour, a formaldehyde-polymer mixture, and a solvent that would be shaped into a heat-resistant disc, which would then be enveloped by a synthetic-polymer varnish.
North American Phonograph Co.: One of the first major phonograph companies which was formed in 1888 and was dissolved in 1896 as it faced many financial and legal troubles. Many different recording companies would soon be born from the fallout of North American.
National Phonograph Co./Thomas Edison Inc./Edison Laboratories: The recording company that Thomas Edison would start on January 26th, 1896, and end on January 2nd, 1957 (but all phonograph operations would end on November 1st, 1929).
Edison Records: The record label started by the National Phonograph Co.
American Graphophone Co.: One of the other recording companies born out of the end of North American. This company was started by Alexander Graham Bell and his workers at the Volta Laboratory. This company would later become the modern Columbia Records company we know today.
Plant/Base: the factory bases that the National Phonograph Co./Thomas Edison Inc. operated out of that- might- have also sold a small number of Edison phonographs and records to certain businesses, but mainly to the jobbers.
Jobber: the Edison's version of a distributor- a larger business/company that operated on a larger scale across a wide territory around the country. They would order the desired records and phonograph machines from the plants/bases to then ship said orders to the smaller dealers who operated within the jobbers' designated territory. In many instances, the jobbers would also have their own shops where they would sell Edison products from.
Dealer: the standard shop or business that sold Edison records and phonographs directly to the consumer. These range from dry goods stores, drug (pharmacy) stores, instrument (notably, piano establishments)/music sheet and piano roll stores, as well as businesses that specifically sold phonographs and cylinder/disc records. Most of these dealers did not have more than a few stores under their name and would send orders for records and phonograph machines to their local jobber due to consumers buying said product in great numbers.Â
Exhibitor: Businesses, or many times, individuals, that would exhibit early Edison nickel-in-the-slot phonographs (a.k.a., nickelodeons) to the populace throughout cities during the mid-to-late 1890's. They would operate music parlors that would have rows of these nickelodeons set up with one specific song per machine that patrons could pay to listen to with prototype earbuds attached to said phonograph. Many of these Edison-specific exhibitors would also become dealers and jobbers.
Suspended: Whenever a dealer or jobber would, through the view of the Edison's National Phonograph Co., sell Edison products outside of Edison's strictly set price lines, or would violate other certain guidelines found within the contracts each business would sign once signing up to sell Edison labeled products, then Edison would blacklist that specific company and their stores and would publish that list of blacklisted (or as seen in Edison Phonograph Monthly, the 'suspended list') companies to not conduct businesses with said dealers/jobbers. It was possible for businesses to get reinstated and taken off the suspended list, but it was more likely to see more stores on the suspended list rather than those who were reinstated.