The 210 that never was

[Lenoirstreetguy]

I was rummaging around in the Canadian Patent Office site trying to find anything on Herbert Berliner's electrical process. No success, but I did run across this patent of design for a variation on the Victrola 210: a neat little slide out tray to pile records on. Shades of the VTLA slide out tray beneath the horn. This was originally from the Victor Talking Machine Co in Camden. My download turned out vaguely wonky but you can see the idea at least.

Jim

[phonophan79]

Neat find, indeed! Thanks for sharing.

[OrthoFan]

Very interesting. Kind of a throwback to the VTLA, which had a pull-out shelf for sorting records.

[JohnM]

Very cool! Thanks for posting that patent! Here are three more weird Victor cabinet patents from my book American Phonograph Design Patents 1897-1916 (1993, Quercus Press)

Sound out the rear side(s):



Sound out the rear top . . . and beaucoup record storage!:


Transitional table model Victrola hybrid between Vic V and Vic XII with a vaguely Edison-ish lid:

[bbphonoguy]

Those are some terrific drawings! I especially like the one with the sound out the rear (top). What a pile of mahogany that would be to have sitting in the parlor!

My one question about the 210 with the slide out record holding shelf, why not just stash the records under the lid above the record cabinet?

[Zeppy]

Very cool! Thanks for posting that patent! Here are three more weird Victor cabinet patents from my book American Phonograph Design Patents 1897-1916 (1993, Quercus Press)

Sound out the rear side(s):



Sound out the rear top . . . and beaucoup record storage!:


Transitional table model Victrola hybrid between Vic V and Vic XII with a vaguely Edison-ish lid:

there are drawings of the mechanical design of the middle one in the first edition of Look for the Dog (I think in the first couple of editions). I think it was intended to be an update of the Auxotoxiphone (excuse my spelling). The etire back part was the horn. It ran from the tone arm, down to the bottom of the front cabinet, and connected at the bottom of the back part. The entire back portion was a horn, and the two parts could actually be separated. I always thought it would be interesting to try to build some of these reject machines, just for the hell of it. Perhaps if I ever end up with more money than I know what to do with, I'll pay someone to do it.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

My one question about the 210 with the slide out record holding shelf, why not just stash the records under the lid above the record cabinet?

I had the same thought but I suppose it was so you could sort records and still "close the lid while playing" to cut the surface noise. If you had installed a radio set in the left hand compartment you wouldn't have a place to sit the records...the dials faced up in a lot of the equipment designed to go into a "radio adaptable Victrola." The only thing is you'd have to pull out the slide in order to tune the radio.

Jim

[bbphonoguy]

My one question about the 210 with the slide out record holding shelf, why not just stash the records under the lid above the record cabinet?

I had the same thought but I suppose it was so you could sort records and still "close the lid while playing" to cut the surface noise. If you had installed a radio set in the left hand compartment you wouldn't have a place to sit the records...the dials faced up in a lot of the equipment designed to go into a "radio adaptable Victrola." The only thing is you'd have to pull out the slide in order to tune the radio.

Jim

That's all true, but I thought the 210's weren't radio adaptable. I think it was the 215's that one could slide a radio into.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Not only were they radio adaptable, but the Canadian Victor Company sold them with a Victor-Northern Electric radio that was factory installed. This is one of the more interesting aspects of the Canadian market during the upheavals of 1925. Just on the cusp of the introduction of the Orthophonic machines, Victor in Canada produced two acoustic machines WITH a Victor installed radio set. One was the 210 and the other was 80 upright. Years ago I did an article about the introduction of electrical recording in Canada that appeared in The Amberola Graphic, and as I said then, they have to be two of the rarest machines in the history of recorded sound. They were put on the market in the spring of 1925 and they were obsolete in December of that year when the Orthophonic line was introduced. I STILL haven't got a scanner...mea culpa...but I'll try to take pic of the page from the Eaton Radio Catalogue of 1925 and post it later.

Jim