Australian Portable gramophone that came with a hammer

[budsta]

I've been dusting my room which I do kind of yearly and as I pull things out it just reminds me of why I appreciate them.
I bought this at a large Swap meet here in 2012.
"Alcocks and Co" are well known in Australia for making Billiard tables but going by their needle tin they also made a couple gramophones.
The "Alcophone and the Escriphone"
The portable pictured ( Alcophone ) is the only one I have seen or heard of. I have seen one Escriphone advertised in Queensland some time ago which was a floor standing cabinet model.
It is certainly unique with the horn made of ply in the lid and the directions explain the use of the tiny hammer. The turntable sits inside the case on the bottom and one picture shows where the mallet and handle is stored.
The needle tin suggest they probably only made the two types of gramophones.
The layer of dust has now been removed.

Stephen

[alang]

That is a very cool design for a portable. Looks to be in great condition as well. Kind of strange that they feel removing the turntable is a common enough task to describe it and even supply a mallet for it Thanks for sharing this interesting machine.
Andreas

[52089]

That is a very cool design for a portable. Looks to be in great condition as well. Kind of strange that they feel removing the turntable is a common enough task to describe it and even supply a mallet for it Thanks for sharing this interesting machine.
Andreas

It looks like the turntable has to be removed and stored inside the case for transport. In playing position, the edges of the turntable are outside the case.

I hope the OP will do a video!

[bigshot]

The mallet can also be used on recordings of very bad music.

[De Soto Frank]

The mallet can also be used on recordings of very bad music.

Or on critics...

[alang]

That is a very cool design for a portable. Looks to be in great condition as well. Kind of strange that they feel removing the turntable is a common enough task to describe it and even supply a mallet for it Thanks for sharing this interesting machine.
Andreas

It looks like the turntable has to be removed and stored inside the case for transport. In playing position, the edges of the turntable are outside the case.

I hope the OP will do a video!

Silly me I only looked at that awesome horn design and missed that the turntable needs to be removed every time you want to close the case It absolutely makes more sense now.

Andreas

[tomb]

Very unusual Hammer, Horn, and all It is in nice condition. I have never seen one with a built in hammer.. Some inventor was putting some thought into this so it would not get damaged. Tom