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.