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Thanks and congratulations to Steve Smolian for his article about this in the new Classic Record Collector. His comment in his message about it to the list is correct -- it does indeed rewrite the history of the earliest days of orchestral recording in the USA. The information about the reported cylinders from 1888 is exciting and, to me at least, revelatory. I look forward to part II. In his article Steve quotes Arthur Fiedler's description of the setup for the BSO sessions with Muck for Victor in October 1917. May I add something minor? I met Fiedler in 1961 and asked him whether he had played in the orchestra for those sessions. I didn't know, but knew he'd been a member of the orchestra then. He responded in his typically brief, gruff way "Yes. It was hot! Muck was bi---y!!" (I've read that the Camden/Philadelphia area was in the midst of a heat wave at the time.) Which also means, tangentially, that Fiedler could be counted among the musicians who recorded in one way or another from the acoustical through digital processes. Don Tait