Polyphone Attachments for Graphophone

[phonogfp]

I'm interested in learning more about Polyphone Attachments for Graphophones, and would be grateful to hear from other owners or anyone with further information on these interesting gadgets.

 

There were evidently at least three different versions.  Here's the earliest, as shown in early catalogues from the Talking Machine Company of Chicago and advertisements in The Phonoscope:

 

 

I assume the second version was this:

 

 

 

 

Finally, what I am surmising was the third version:

 

 

 

Again, I'd love to hear from anyone who has further information on these Polyphone Attachments for Graphophones, or who owns one (especially the first version - which I've never seen in person.

 

Thanks!

 

George Paul

gpaul2000@aol.com

[Tinfoilphono]

Definitely an interesting question. I have never seen the first in real life.

 

I'm curious what your thinking is in the production order of the other two. I've seen the catalog listing for the fancier one which you call number 2, but I haven't seen any literature on the last example. The only one I saw in person was in the Hazelcorn collection. I don't know where it later went. Its simplicity of design prompts me to think it likely came before the fancier one, but that's just a gut feeling. They could well have decided to simplify it further.

 

I've only seen one original example of the second, fancy one. It was in the collection of the late Neil Maken, of Yesterday Once Again. (I know the current owner but he prefers to remain anonymous.) In the late 1990s Maken made 12 replicas which were very nicely done. Those are rarities in themselves today.

 

 

 

 

[phonogfp]

Thanks for responding, Rene.  

 

My reasoning behind the sequence I've offered is that the "1st version" was illustrated in the late 1898/early 1899 Phonoscope as well as a late 1898 Polyphone catalog.  I'm pretty confident that it must the the earliest design.  The "2nd version" (fancy casting) is shown in a couple of catalogs from the Talking Machine Company of Chicago dating from January/February 1899 and between late August and November 1, 1899.  I suppose that what I'm calling the "3rd version" could have appeared briefly after the "1st version" and before the "2nd version," but - like you - I've seen no documentation of that simplified design.  It's nicely finished and engraved, which could suggest that it's actually earlier than the fancier casting, but I'm betting it's the last version.  I'm hoping to learn for sure!

 

Thanks again,

George

[phonogfp]

As a further suggestion that the simplest version was the last, the first of Douglass's US patents for the Polyphone show what appears to be the second version.  I wonder if any examples of the device illustrated in The Phonoscope exist?

 

George P.