nonsense about them". The Irish Folklore Commission also made an effort to collect folk music and song. Ó Duilearga professed to not being very musically oriented, and the commission hired Liam de Noraidh as full-time collector, until he had to resign in 1942 due to poor health, and replaced by Séamus Ennis, who used the Ediphone recording device extensively. The commission was also closely involved with locals, especially Irish-speaking districts. They distributed questionnaires and used media outlets to inform the general public of the commission. The commission also began making recordings in 1948 of the dwindling number of native speakers of Manx Gaelic on the Isle of Man, During its time, the extensive collecting by the Commission caught the attention of many foreign scholars. With greater recognition, Ó Duilearga's vision for the Commission grew and around the 1950s many scholars were participating by contributing to collections and research. Recording devices The commission owned a substantial collection of Ediphone recordings on cylinders, obtained through purchases (e.g. the Fr. Luke Donnellan folksong collection, acquired 1939) or from full-time music collectors by the time Ennis was hired in 1942, and he began by transcribing them onto paper, later using the Ediphone as recording instrument for field work, some time between 1943 and 1944 perhaps (the circumstances are unclear). The device, despite its shortcomings, did help them to collect lyrics more efficiently. The Ediphone was also used to record long folktales, although it could not be utilized in some cases, for example, some of the reciters were uncomfortable in its presence. The Ediphone was also prodigiously heavy, and together with a supply of cylinders, was cumbersome carrying across rough terrain. The commission could not afford a constant fresh supply of cylinders, so the recordings had to be reused and overwritten after being transcribed. Ó Duilearga had since the very beginning harbored the design of using the gramophone as recording device, since each vinyl disc was not more durable and far more affordable than the Ediphone wax cylinders. The problem of the machine's cost, some $500, was obviated when the Edison Company made a present of it free of charge, and the gramophone arrived at the Commission in June 1940. Unfortunately, the Commission at this time was unable to adapt the device for field work, and as WWII had already started, it was also difficult procuring parts from America or England. It would not be