UC Santa Barbara Wax Cylindar Audio ArchiveBefore MP3s, CDs, cassettes and vinyl records, people listened to … cylinders. First made of tinfoil, then wax and plastic, cylinder recordings, commonly the size and shape of a soda can, were the first commercially produced sound recordings in the decades around the turn of the 20th century. Included in this collection are early 20th Century recordings of performances in (1) Norwegians; (2) Swedish; & (3) Finnish.