A Mystery Solved is Music to My Ears.

Hello again!

Today I get to tell you a little bit more about this strange little mystery artifact. 

It’s a phonograph cylinder! Thanks to John for your guess on the blog!

But why is it a cylinder? Didn’t phonographs use old-fashioned records? The big flat discs? 

Well, yes. But before the invention of that kind of record, there were these things. They were small cylindrical records, that worked pretty much the same way. The lines around the outside of the cylinder are actually grooves, much like the grooves on a record. The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, while he was working on a way to transcribe telegraphs in order to play one on repeat. He first experimented with recording sound by embossing onto wax paper, then moved on to doing the same on cylinders covered in tin foil. The tin foil, however, only lasted for a few plays of the recording. The novelty of the invention wore off, and Edison instead started working on the incandescent lightbulb. 

However, eventually, new cylinders were developed for phonographs, made of three different types of wax mixed together. Most early wax phonograph cylinders were generally brown, and looked like this:

Our mystery artifact, though, is an example of the next step in these cylinders. Called “Blue Amberol Records,” they are made of celluloid, a type of hard plastic. The strength of these cylinders is that they were “indestructible,” or at least they were much less likely to break down or degrade in quality after numerous plays through. These are actually even more durable than the disc records that came after them!

These kinds of cylinders were played on machines that look somewhat like what you expect when you hear the word "phonograph." This particular one in our collection is called an Amberola (like the Amberol records!) and was made by the Edison company:

As you can tell, the cylinder would have been put on the apparatus in the center. Then, that would spin, and the needle would move down the cylinder to play the record.

Now, why exactly don't we use these kinds of records anymore? Rather, why did the big flat records win out over these? Much of the reason was because the record-players and records were easier and cheaper to mass produce. Also, flat discs were way easier to store.  In addition, as recording technology developed and the double-sided record was created, the simple fact of the longer duration gave disc records a clear advantage. Cylinders could only hold about 4 minutes worth of music (or whatever was recorded on them).  By around 1912, it was clear that cylinders were on their way out, and discs were here to stay (well, for a while anyway). 

Oh, and if you were wondering what was on this particular cylinder, see for yourself!

Thanks for reading! We will be back soon with a new mystery artifact so stay tuned! And as always, please come and see us, these interesting mystery artifacts featured here on the blog, the new Water/Ways exhibit, and much much more! 

Small, Dark and Mysterious: What's this Artifact?

Hello dear readers! Sorry for not posting last week, we were busy with all our Water/Ways preparations and excitement! Just so you know, we have a ton of Water/Ways-related events and programs coming up for the next few months. Keep track of them on our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

Now, onto the main event of the Mystery Artifact!

This one is hard to tell the specifics in the photos, but someone still might know what it is right away. 

The artifact is a hollow cylinder, black on the outside, white on the inside (actually, if you look really closely, it's very very dark blue). The outside has very small lines going around it most of the way up. There's also some writing on the top, but that will probably give it away pretty easily!

The inside has a few wide grooves. 

To give you an idea of the size, it’s about 4 and a half inches tall and 2 inches in diameter. 

Do you know what it is? Let us know in the comments, or on any of the social media channels you’d like. Thanks for reading!

Water/Ways Finally Opens!

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​Water/Ways Opening! The Smithsonian has finally arrived! 

Opening from 10-4 Saturday July 16, 2016

The Museum of the Grand Prairie is delighted to be hosting the Museums on Main Street Exhibit Water/Ways as jointly sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and the Illinois Humanities Council.

Join us to explore the Smithsonian Water/Ways, and learn how water impacts our local community in the companion exhibit, The Worth of Water. 

As a part of the Museum of the Grand Prairie’s opening celebration of Water/Ways:​​

• ​​Sara Grady, storyteller and water advocate, will present:  Water, Wonder, Words: Language, Stories, and the Cradle of Life at 2:00 pm. 
• ​​Tours of the new exhibit will be given hourly.
• ​​Interactive stations set up in and around the museum from 1-4pm, including a water table from the Illinois State Water Survey, and participation by the Upper Sangamon River Conservancy, Prairie Rivers Network, the Mahomet Aquifer Consortium, IDNR, and the USGS Ground Water Section.​

Refreshments will be served before the presentation. 

For more info: (217) 586-2612 or kriopelle@ccfpd.org.

Water/Ways is produced by Museum on Main Street, a partnership between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and Illinois Humanities.

You Can Breathe Easy, this Mystery has Been Revealed!

As Kate answered on Facebook (Thank you for your answer!), this is a Kerosene Lamp Vaporizer from the late 1800s. Specifically, this artifact is a “Vapo-Cresolene Vaporizer.” Now what does that mean, exactly?

Most of you reading probably deduced that the lamp-like part of the object was used for heat. The flame from the lamp heated up the apparatus above it, which was meant to be filled with Cresolene. Cresolene was a sticky black liquid, made from coal tar, used as a disinfectant. This substance was used these kinds of vaporizers, supposedly meant for medicinal purposes. On the object’s box, it describes Vapo-Cresolene as “a germ destroying liquid to be vaporized.” Here's how it was meant to be used:

The Vapo-Cresolene Vaporizer that we have in the collection (actually, we have a few of them) is advertised to aid in relieving a number of ailments such as colds, asthma, whooping cough, croup, catarrh, pneumonia, “the bronchial complications of scarlet fever and measles” and  could be used “as an aid in the treatment of diptheria.” Essentially, these kinds of “lamps” were meant to help with any and all respiratory diseases. And don’t just think we’re talking about human respiratory diseases! Oh no, it was also advertised that Vapo-Cresolene could be used as help for horses, dogs and “fowls” with various breathing problems.

Though the manufacturers would like us to believe that this strange substance, Cresolene, was imbued with extraordinary healing powers, the American Medical Association disproved them in a 1908 report. Even so, there were “Vapo-Cresolene” vaporizers still being manufactured until the 1950s.

An electric vaporizer from the '50s!

These days people use humidifiers in much the same way that these vaporizers were used at the turn of the twentieth century. Personally these little machines seem a lot safer to me than inhaling coal tar and sleeping with a lit kerosene lamp next to my bed!

I hope you enjoyed learning about this little artifact as much as I did! Stay tuned next week for another mystery artifact! And as always, if you're interested in a closer look at this or any of our recent mystery artifacts, please come visit us and take a look around the museum too! 

Thanks for reading!

Can you Shed a Little Light on this Mystery Artifact?

After that long weekend we are back with another new mystery artifact. Here's what this week's "mystery" is:

This mystery artifact is made of a few parts. The first is a small lamp, with a clear bowl, which you can see a wick inside. It also has a small white glass chimney.

The second part is the metal stand, which holds the lamp at the bottom.

The third part is also metal. It is a small bowl at the top. The bowl rests on the top part of the metal stand, and hangs above the top of the lamp chimney.

This artifact is actually rather small, measuring only about half a foot tall, and 2 ¾ inches wide.

What do you think it is? If you have a guess, let us know by commenting here, on our Facebook page, on our Instagram, or by tweeting the answer at us. We really like to know what your guesses are!

There’s some writing on this artifact that I tried to keep out of the pictures, so if you want to try to figure that out, you should definitely come check it out in person. There’s also lots of other great stuff at the museum to check out! See you soon!

Have You Heard? It's Time to Reveal this Mystery Artifact

As I predicted, we got a correct guess on this one!

Thanks to Nike on Facebook for your guess!

Well, if you didn’t know, it’s an ear trumpet. To be more specific, it is a type of ear trumpet referred to as a “conversation tube.”

Ear trumpets were invented in the 17th century to help people who were partially deaf to hear more clearly. They don’t amplify sound the way that modern hearing aids do. Instead, they collect sound into and lead the sound waves into the user’s ear. There are many different types of ear trumpets, coming in many shapes and sizes, and made of various materials.

The simplest kinds of ear trumpets were basically a tapered tube. The earliest ear trumpets were made of animal horns, and may date back to before the “official” invention in the 1600s. Some may have been hunting horns that someone thought to stick in their ear! Eventually, ear horns were made of other materials, usually metal. The first ear trumpets were fairly big, usually longer than a foot, and sometimes even over 2 feet long. Soon, because of the size, smaller versions were developed, including collapsible ones like this one:

There were also small, portable ear trumpets called “London Domes.”

These were used from the mid-1800s to around 1930. They were popular mostly because of the small size. The shape of these are certainly a little strange. But the wide mouth and parabolic shape of the dome focus the sound into the ear tube.

If you’re wondering about the name, these were named after the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Apparently, the shape is similar enough that people determined the name appropriate.

Ah, but I am going off on a tangent! As I said before, our Mystery Artifact is actually a “conversation tube,” also known as a speaking tube. The point of conversation tubes is that the bell end (the end that receives the sound) can be moved around easily to direct the listener’s attention to specific things. Most often they would be used directly, having one person speak straight into the receiving end.  These didn’t pick up far off sounds as well as the other examples did, instead they were made to be able to hear sounds very close up. So, as the name indicates, they were effective when having conversations. Or, as this listing from the 1895 Montgomery Ward catalogue states, it "suits the most obstinate cases of deafness."

Bonus: There's also a London Dome listed!

Eventually, in-ear hearing aids were invented, and these strange contraptions were mostly a thing of the past. Though some people still swear by them, I have learned while researching this. Which would you prefer? A hearing aid or a conversation tube? If you want a look at more ear trumpets (I know I do), here's a great collection of vintage hearing apparatuses (I barely scratched the surface on all the different kinds)!

Thanks for reading this mystery artifact reveal! We'd love it if you came to visit to check out all our previous artifacts in person, or just to have a look around the museum. All summer long, we are open 10 am - 5 pm Monday through Saturday, and 1 pm-5pm on Sundays. 

Circle Around this Mystery Artifact...

Hello again!

Here’s this week’s artifact.

The majority of the artifact is a woven cord made of mohair, according to our records. It measures about 3 feet long. 

The cord connects the two end pieces, which are both made of hard rubber. 

One end is black and bells out. The other end is small, thin, and slightly curved,  with a hole in the end. 

There are times when it seems to me that these artifacts are not actually such great mysteries but they’re fun to look at nonetheless. So if you know what this one is, let us know! You can comment here, on our Facebook page, tweet the answer at us, or comment on Instagram! Of course, you can always come see us and take a look in person!