Edison Small Electric Radio Phonograph

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PeterF
Victor IV
Posts: 1913
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:06 pm

Re: Edison Small Electric Radio Phonograph

Post by PeterF »

Somebody gave me a Victor Electrola 12-25 recently. It was complete except for a certain element, the absence of which will play strongly into this narrative in a moment.

It was free because the cabinet was extremely rough. Inside (and thus protected by) the outer doors is the speaker grille and a little garage door, behind which hides the platter and tonearm and controls, and the beast of course has a speaker with a huge heavy magnet and frame, and a huge heavy transformer and amp chassis. Internals are all in pretty great shape and it will sing again, I promise.

My buddy and his wife popped by with it, and we unloaded it together in the driveway. I wasn't ready to put it inside because I wanted to move some stuff around first, and they had to go, so they went.

I figured I could kinda squinch it around - like I have with so many others - to wrestle it into place, solo. The thing has got to weigh 400 pounds, but I've managed this before, dolly-less.

When that time came, I gave the thing a big hug and started to coax it around to where it needed to be.

Turned out it was not fond of my embrace, and just then, that key missing element decided to speak from its undisclosed location as well. Without this part - the stretcher linking and stabilizing the lower parts of the 4 tall spindly legs - one of those selfsame legs decided to also part ways, and the other three decided they just weren't going to take up the slack. So, locked in what now seemed destined to be a fatal embrace, we began to descend together to the ground in a way that might do harm to both of us.

Like the random passerby who mysteriously finds superhuman strength to lift the car off the victim pinned beneath, I suddenly found myself able to slow the descent enough to set the beast gently (enough) on its side without much impact.

And then I found my damn hatchet and chopped off the remaining three legs. That'll show 'em.

It could now be shoved into place easily, and it takes up less storage room, to boot.

Afterwards as I leaned against a wall resting, I gazed at my phone. A news flash came across my feed, announcing the passing of Verne Troyer, the dwarf actor who had portrayed Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies. At 2'8" he might have enjoyed the newly adjusted 12-25.

But alas, this can never be.

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