At the beginning of this industry it was thought that the principal use of the instrument would be found in business applications, to take the place of the stenographer, but it proved difficult to revolutionize office methods, especially as the earlier machines were somewhat intricate, and the business man had no time to divide in engineering a machine. These difficulties, however, have been so far overcome by modern improvements and simplification of the machine that its use in business houses as an amanuensis has become quite common. The greatest use of the graphophone is, however, for amusement purposes. Its songs, orchestral and solo renditions, and its humorous monologue reproductions constitute to-day a great library of wax cylinders, regularly catalogued and sold by the thousands. It will readily be understood that the formation of the cylinders must constitute a great business of itself when it is remembered that many record cylinders accompany each graphophone, and that the latter are turned out at the rate of one a minute by a single company. Many thousands of these cylinders are made daily. Some are sent out simply as plain wax cylinders, onto which the records are made by the voice of the purchaser, while others have records made for them of popular music, monologues in dialect, humorous speeches, etc. The waxy composition, which is in reality a species of soap, is melted in huge pots, and then passes from one floor to another, undergoing a refining process in its progress, and finally reaches the molds. These molds are arranged in rows around a horizontal wheel about eight feet in diameter. The wheel is kept revolving, and a man on one side is kept constantly busy in filling the molds with the molten material as they reach him. A half revolution of the wheel brings the filled molds to the other side of the room, and by that time the material has hardened sufficiently to enable another attendant, stationed there, to remove the cylinders from the molds. Thus the wheel is kept going, receiving at one side a charge of the melted wax and discharging at the other molded cylinders, which are afterwards turned true on the surface. The record-making department is both unique and interesting. Here the records of music are produced, and they are made by bands and performers engaged for the purpose, many of which, operating at the same time, produce such a medley as to be scarcely distinguishable to the visitor. The records are tested by about half a hundred women, each of whom has a little compartment or booth framed in by glass partitions. The duty of the tester is to decide upon the merits of the record by actually listening to it on the graphophone.