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Good evening all, im looking for a needle arm for a Victor exhibition reproducer. The thumbscrew is broken off on the one on the reproducer now. Thanks Dan

That's a wonderful flyer! It's interesting to see that Bacigalupi was prepared to deliver the earliest version of the AT as of July 1, 1898. I've never seen a specific date for its appearance, and I've always written "mid-1898" when referencing its introduction. It was probably available in June on the East Coast. Thanks for posting this. George P.

I was looking for a vitascope flyer and came across this Bacigalupi sales flyer I have..measures 12 x 14 each page..pretty big...also noted the NYC office...didn't remember it when I last posted on Bacigalupi items...

Hello, I'm trying to locate a grill , a speed control knob and a crank for the B60 phonograph. The crank isn't the usual cylinder motor size. It has a larger winding shaft O.D. Female thread. The speed knob was only used on the belt driven, table model machines. I tried George V. but all he has is an empty cabinet for a B60. Gramps has a pattern for the grill, but he's busy building a house so can't make me one. A repro would suit me fine !! I'm willing to pay a reasonable sum knowing these parts are not common. Can anyone help? Many Thanks !! Bob Hodge Courtesy of Intertique, the grill looks like this:

Here is a brown wax Columbia Washington D.C. cylinder from 1896. The song is "My Best Girl's A New Yorker" sung by Dan W. Quinn. It was published in 1895 and there is a reputed recording of it by Edward M. Favor made that same year. Dan W. Quinn also recorded it on a 7" Berliner, number 978, made on April 17, 1996. The cylinder here is a bit rough with a few pits and mold spots. I have tried to edit out some of the worst blasts and pops but it was not possible to remove all of them. The cylinder itself is an ordinary brown wax cylinder, not a channel rim type, and it did not come with an original box. It did come with an original very faded title slip. I've uploaded it as it appears and also enhanced so you can read it. I've also uploaded the audio in both wav and mp3 formats for maximum browser compatibility. Dan W. Quinn - My Best Girl's A New Yorker.wav Dan W. Quinn - My Best Girl's A New Yorker.mp3

Hi, I am seeking an experienced hobby photographer in or near Indianapolis to take photos of cylinder record boxes for my book project. Can anyone help? Here's what it is about ... There is a private museum as part of a company in Indianapolis that shows the history of voice recording, especially dictating wax cylinder machines. They also have a large collection of dictation cylinders in their storage boxes. I do have many of them, but there a couple that I don't own but would love to include in my forthcoming book about cylinder record brands, boxes and label variation. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anyone at the museum who can take these photos for me. But I am sure they would let someone take them, if agreed with them in advance. I would give the photographer a short guide that shows how I would like the boxes to be photographed. Basically if I do it myself, I take photos from all around and maybe the top and bottom of the box. It's not too complicated, but doing it with something better than a 15 year old smartphone would help a lot. Of course, I would be very grateful for the help and would pay for the expenses, if there should be any ... or I have a few nice duplicate unusual cylinder boxes, if that would be a "payment" preferred. Please let me know if you can do the "job" or if you know someone who might do it. Thanks a lot! Cheers, Helmut

Hi Bruce No, it's an error when I uploaded the pictures. Sorry if I let you needing more pictures 🙂

I can't imagine the work that must be going into addressing all this detail, down to the bespoke screws. Slowly though I see it start to come together. Pedro, I'm not able to open that zip file in your post here. I assume some additional pictures are there?

I can't imagine it being the same recording. It was her most performed role and I am confident she recorded it several times over her career. The version on the demo record was recorded in New York December 8, 1930 and conducted by Rosario Bourdon who was one of the great Victor music directors.

Outstanding work! What a great project.

I didn't mean to say the dead space was an issue, just a fact of trying to get a clean sound. As for my equipment, if you look at the video on YouTube at the bottom of the comments i list all of my software and hardware used for my transfers. Here is the text. As for specific setting I adjust many of the settings in the phono stage for nearly every record so I can't really tell you specifically. Software: Audacity Click Repair (An old java program running in Windows 11 ARM emulated in MacOS) Final Cut Pro Hardware: Audio-Technica ATLP120USB Stereo Turntable - line out (not USB) Stanton 500 with 4mil stylus (4 grams) Parks Audio’s Puffin Phono DSP phono stage Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro - M4 Pro

Beautiful transfers! Thanks for posting. I own the album with Lily Pons singing the Bell Song. It's on one side of a 12", and only the first part of the aria is on the demo record here, but what a pleasure to hear this magnificent clean transfer! (I don't have a score to check this, but as to the "dead space between phrases," I'm pretty sure that the piece is notated that way.) And that's apparently not the Philadelphia Orchestra on the Lakmé; the label just says "Soprano with orchestra." Again, thanks for the spectacular treat! P.S. Could you describe the equipment you used for your transfer? You know, turntable, cartridge, stylus, filtration/compensation/equaization, all that good stuff. Thanks! Later addition/correction: I own the album with Pons Bell Song alright, but it's Columbia Masterworks set M-MM-561, a 12" three-record set with Bell Song on two sides and the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor on four sides. "With orchestra conducted by Pietro Cimara", who was a conductor at the MET Opera. His career came to an unfortunate end, as he suffered a stroke while conducting La forza del destino in Jan. 1958. Here's a link to an article in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1958/01/14/archives/conductor-collapses-at-met-violinist-takes-over-on-podium-conductor.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A1E.73Dv.wDI3d5zpjU89&smid=url-share Now I wonder whether the demo Bell Song recording is identical to the Columbia?? Could that be?

I had the privilege of seen lots of "behind the scene" pictures and I agree with everyone that this is an absolute stunning collection that now it is displayed in all its glory. Congratulations Bruce!

Lot of progress this week albeit nothing too spectacular. I made the pivoting connectors for the reproducers, their tiny internal turning points and lots and lots of different screws to bolt everything together. Making bespoke screws is an immensely time consuming work but this machine requires it.Photos-1-001 (2).zip I also cast the front leg of the carriage and, as I write this lines, the 3d printer is working full steam to prepare some supports for been able to mock up the carriage position and check the gaps between the different parts of the phonograph. Some tooling was bought also to be able to make replicas of the cylinder tins.

This is a very interesting record perhaps more for its label than the recorded content. But an example of this same label in Mike Sherman’s “Collectors Guide To Victor Records” book was included in “The Kit Of Demonstration Records” provided to dealers/customers in 1933. My copy is one number larger so it too may have also been part of that set of demonstration recordings. The K-3 example in Sherman’s book had 78rpm on one side and 33 1/3rpm on the other side. K-4 has 78rpm on both sides. From what I can gather the kit of demonstration records were given to customers that bought the new dual speed machines that could play both 78rpm and 33 1/3rpm records. Both sides of the record are from already released records. Side A sounds pretty great and is lively orchestral music. Side B also sounds great but has a couple of things going against it. Firstly, it is a pretty softly recorded record with lots of dead space between phrases. And, it has obviously been played much more often that Side A. It still shows how magnificent the soprano voice of Lily Pons was.

Thanks!!! That's exactly what I needed to know. All the rubber is supple, isolator and diaphragm - so I'll have a go at tuning it according to the instructions! And yes. I've played all kinds of records - I'll be back when I hear what happens after trying the "tuning"!!

Stunning, Bruce! Congratulations on the new digs and thank you for sharing it with us. Stellar!

Thanks for the compliment George. I didn't have to go far for this one, it was in my own backyard at a local auction house, you remember those, right? I actually got there too late and a local furniture dealer bought it. I tracked him down before he even got it out of his truck. The Washington A was in a cabinet that was a total wreck but the inside was almost mint. Chuck

Thanks for posting this, Chuck! I've always admired the H&S "Grand" cabinets. I drove to Baltimore for mine (a 10-hour round trip)! That's a very nice Washington Type A too! Beautiful combination - - George P.

I have (I believe) an old HMV Gramophone which has been built into a beautiful solid timber cabinet with cupboards for storage etc. This was built and handed down through a family and the timber is frok their property in Jiliby on the central coast of NSW. The piece is beautiful but very heavy and I need to move it on to somewhere where it will be appreciated and looked after. It has tins of needles and a big pile of wax records that go with it. I just need the space in the room back and would like to see it go to so.eone who will appreciate it. I am open to offers and not after making lots of money from this Please email me at drumasteele@gmail.com Sean

I can only conjecture that the failure of the Phon-Arm Attachment was due to Edison's inclusion of flower horns with most of its Phonographs beginning in October 1907. It was unfortunate timing for the Chicago Stand Company. George P.

Which rubber is "supple enough," around the diaphragm or the isolator? Ideally both should be, but the latter is critical for Meltropes (see below momentarily...). The rubber should compress and spring back to form (i.e., you want "bounce" not "squish"). Are you playing electric process recordings when comparing? Try 1930s recordings (or later) if you haven't already. Have you "tuned" the isolator while fitted to the tonearm? This can be done by adjusting the compression (via the knurled nut) and adjusting the position on the arm. From the installation instructions:

That was really a very clever and useful device. I'm surprised it wasn't popular. I've yet to see one in real iife.

MODEL: Phon-Arm SERIAL #: N/A YEARS MADE: About 1905-1910 COST: $7.50, lowered to $6.00 in 1908 CASE/CABINET SIZE: N/A TURNTABLE: N/A REPRODUCER: N/A MOTOR: N/A HORN DIMENSIONS: Various REPRODUCTION PARTS: none CURRENT VALUE: No idea. So few survived and I haven't seen one come up for sale publicly. INTERESTING FACTS : The Phon-Arm was made to turn any Edison Home, Standard or Triumph and a few Columbia models into large horn models without the need of a separate crane. Obviously it wasn't a big seller as very few have survived. You bought the tone arm assembly and used what ever horn you wanted, as seen in the ad below mostly the recommended horn was a Victor, but they said you could cut the end of a cylinder horn off and hold it on the elbow with a screw, in this case to secure the horn a small threaded boss is on the top of the elbow. You'll notice in the picture in ad #3 the proof reader was asleep or not familiar with an Edison phonograph or maybe one of those rare left handed models. Chuck

What a nice way to start the week. A terrific electrically recorded Edison Diamond Disc.