PATCHING UP A VICTOR R

A nice Victor Model R "Royal" was brought in for a minimal cost patch job.    The mechanical part was easy, one of the three governor springs and weight assemblies had a screw come out of one end.   The screw was in the bottom of the case, so putting it back was easy.

After that was done, the turntable did not have enough torque to play a record.   This is a simple spring motor, so I thought maybe it needed to be cleaned and greased.   Did that.   Not much improvement.   The spring seemed to have lost much of its tension.   The short term solution was to decrease the needle pressure, by adding a counterbalance to the  horn, thus getting by with a reduced motor torque.

Rule #1, is do not make irreversible changes, so I made a small clip to hang the weight on.   If a proper restoration is made in the future, this can be removed and no sign it ever existed will remain.

                                                     NEW SILVERTONE PHONOGRAPH


We recently received a Sears Silvertone floor model phonograph.   The oak cabinet is in good cosmetic condition and the phonograph works and sounds fine.

Since most of the Sears Silverstone Phonographs were made by Columbia, I suppose this machine falls into that group.   There is no model number or for that matter any identification label anywhere that we could find, except for the Silverstone label on the underside of the lid.   From the case design, we suppose it is a 1910 to 1920 unit, but to date we have found no way to be sure of the manufacturing date.    If you have any info about this, please contact the museum at either debencemusem@verizon.net or at 814-432-8350.

                                The Edison Standard Phonograph

The Edison Standard is a spring driven external horn phonograph model, that was introduced by Edison's National Phonograph Company, in April, 1899.   It sold for $20, but remember you were lucky to make $1 per day at the time.

We were given a good working one a couple of years ago and already had a non-functioning one.   Since the building is space limited, it seemed wise to sell one of them.

In order to sell one, it has to work.  So we decided to fix the broken one and sell it.   There were two main problems.   The spring was broken about 3 turns from the inner end.   The C reproducer  needed a lot of help.  We don't do reproducers, so we sent it out for repair.   The spring is simple, but as you probably know, it is dangerous to replace a spring if you are inexperienced at this job.   There was also a chipped tooth on one gear, which had to be replaced.

We got it all taken care of in early July of 2017 and will be sale shortly, but there is no horn to go with it, as they are readily available in reproduction form.

BRUNSWICK MODEL R

                                                           

This is is a Brunswick Model R phonograph, serial number 227064 in a lowboy style cabinet, probably built in the early 1920s.

How Rare Is It?
Brunswick was moving into the number 2 spot in phonograph sales in the early 1920s, so there are probably a lot of these still in existence, though the lowboy style is less common.

How Does It Work?
The music is contained in the 78 rpm disc record.   For lateral cut records, the grooves move the needle on the reproducer sideways, which vibrates the diaphragm the needle is connected to, which reproduces the music stored in the disc.   From the diaphragm, the vibrating air is conducted through the tone arm to the back of the built in horn, which directs the sound to the front of the phonograph.   A major feature of this model is the 1917 patented Ultona tone arm, which incorporates a pickup for lateral groove records as produced by everyone except Edison and also a separate correct reproducer for the Edison vertical cut records.

The turntable is driven by a spring motor that you wind up with the side crank.   When fully wound, it will play 3 records before needing to be wound again.

What Is It Worth?
Current selling price in the $300.00 range.

Where Has It Been?
We have no information prior to 2015, when it was donated to the museum.   When it came to us it needed some work.   The front grille had been inserted upside down, which jammed it in place.   While removing it we further damaged it and the first order of restoration was it's restoration.   The Ultona reproducer was stuck in an in between position due to swelling of the pot metal and had to be freed.

Background Information
John Brunswick moved to America from Switzerland at the age of 14.   He started the Cincinnati  Carriage Company and expanded into wood products by 1845.   The company slogan was "If it's wood we can make it and make it better than anyone else".  They became a major player in the billiard and bowling areas.   They got into the phonograph business in the early 1910s by first building cabinets  for others, then by producing complete phonographs.   By 1920, they were moving into second place in this market, overtaking Columbia and still behind Victor.   Their ownership of their own cabinet making facility allowed them to be first in introducing the all electric phonograph in 1925.

Not What We Thought It Was

When the museum was opened in 1995, we had a lot of "Extra" items that came along, which were put in storage, mostly on the second and third floors.   When we started our "Open all Floors to the Public" project, we slowly cleaned out these areas and cataloged and stored the items more properly.  

We had one phonograph listed on our inventory as a very early Columbia table model, which we had tucked away and paid no attention to.

One of our summer interns was checking out these stored items for proper ID and condition.   It did not take long to see that this phonograph was not a Columbia, but an external horn 1906 Victor VicII, without a horn.

Once we understood what to look for, we found the horn in our miscellaneous stored parts.   After cleaning and repair, this phonograph became a fine addition to our first floor tour area and is played on many of our tours.

The Victor VicII was first introduced in 1901 as the E model.   Transition to the Vic-II name came in 1905 with the change to a tapered tone arm.   It was a single spring motor table model with an external horn, selling for $30.00 when introduced.   Production continued until 1920, by which time the price was $37.50 and something like 125,000 had been made.

Ref:   www.victor-victrola.com for background information.

The Talking Machines Made in Pennsylvania

Modernola talking machine

The first talking machine was invented by Thomas A. Edison in 1877. This crude machine was hand operated and was named the Phonograph (meaning Voice-writer). To record sound the operator spoke loudly into the mouth piece. The sound waves were embossed by a stylus on a sheet of soft tin foil wrapped around a revolving cylinder. To replay the sound a second stylus was run along the groove, picking up the embossed vibrations and transmitting them to a diaphragm from which a copy of the original sound could be heard.

In 1893 a new talking machine of totally different design to the cylinder machines was put on the market. Emile Berliner had devised a machine which he called the Gramophone. Compared with the cylinder machines it was very crude, being hand cranked. It used disc records seven inches in diameter. It was however louder than the cylinder machines, and the records were cheaper and easier to store.

By the early 1920's most of the basic patents had expired, and many other companies began to produce talking machines. One such firm in Johnstown, Pennsylvania was the Modernola Talking Machine Company, which produced various versions of phonographs. One of its unique products was a floor model phonograph with a lamp; and example is featured in the exhibit. By 1922, the company had a small factory on Station Street. In addition to console and portable record players, the company also made several models of radios, such as the "Delano Sheraton."

The company, however, closed in 1929, probably because few people could afford luxury items at the onset of the Depression.