The new millennium saw the contents of the cylinders undergo sound restoration and transformation to digital format. This work was completed by audio engineer Henri Chamoux.

Chamoux, a vintage sound technician and restorer, found in the collection a rich repository of field recordings on black wax and celluloid cylinders. Most were in fair or good condition, while thirty cylinders were damaged, with cracks or breaks, mould infestation and surface distortion – all typical challenges with wax cylinder recordings.

Digitising the cylinders

Commercial wax cylinders were in use from 1894 onwards, and from 1902, thanks to developments in moulding technology, mass reproduction was possible. Blank cylinders were available for personal use and for archiving. Henebry’s motivation to record Irish traditional music on cylinder was for posterity, but also because he believed in the transmission of Irish traditional music.

Phonograph recorders became more affordable in the early years of the century, but by 1910 the era of the cylinder was effectively over. Because phonograph players often damaged the cylinders, the machine which Chamoux uses for digitising wax cylinders, and constructed by him for this purpose, minimises any further damage and allows manual manipulation of the cylinders as the digitisation is taking place.