Wax seems like esoteric slang now, but it’s grounded in the physical history of audio recording. Once upon a time, the medium for both recording and reproducing sound was none other than wax.
The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison and patented in 1878. It both recorded and reproduced sound. Essentially, Edison figured out how to turn sound vibrations into a physical pattern that could be played back. He sketched up a machine that his mechanic, John Kruesi reportedly built in 30 hours. Edison spoke into a mouthpiece as a recording needle notched the vibrations from his voice into a groove pattern on a metal cylinder that was wrapped in tin foil. Edison’s first successful recording was him saying “Mary had a little lamb” into the mouthpiece. More like, “Tom had a huge breakthrough,” because the recording played back perfectly on the machine Kruesi had built.
In 1880, while Edison was off working on the incandescent light bulb, Alexander Graham Bell turned his attention to the phonograph. Bell, in full acoustical research mode, achieved a better result with wax on the cylinder rather than tin foil. Thus, wax became the standard once Edison jumped back to his invention, eventually offering the Edison Spring Motor Phonograph to the pubic in 1895. The phonograph captured imaginations, but the wax cylinders were difficult to mass duplicate.
Another enterprising fellow, Emile Berliner, sought to solve the duplication problem. This led to his invention in the late 1880s of the flat phonograph disc. Flat discs could be copied easier (think printing press) and could hold more material. Berliner worked with machine shop owner Eldridge Johnson on a motor for the phonograph that would play his discs. This association led to the formation of the Victor company, which introduced the iconic Victor Victrola to the public in 1906. Flat discs eventually triumphed over cylinders, and shellac came to replace wax.
By the time Freddy’s mom was playing records for him on their mid-20th century console stereo, the discs were mostly made of vinyl. But his mom also had an antique phonograph machine she’d literally crank up from time to time to play music. The recordings she played on the phonograph were cylinders coated in wax.
If you’d like to learn more about the early days of sound recording, check out this article from the Library of Congress: