Edison 'Hot Rod' Home

[kirtley2012]

What at first may seem like an innocent Edison Home phonograph in fact has a dark secret to hide...

All fairly normal, except where's the speed control and start/stop gone?, what are those bolt nuts sticking through the bedplate, and whats that weird rod underneath the mandrel? and is that a wire?

When it's opened up all is revealed... ITS BEEN ELECTRIFIED

No this is not a product of Frankenstein dug out from an old shed somewhere in the depths of Cumbria, it was kindly given to me by David (DRH) and given a plane ride to the UK.
When I'd expressed interest in wanting to do a project such as this he offered this machine as a mahine that a friend of his had started but was some ways away from completion.

The cabinet has been slightly cut down in height (hence the name 'Hot Rod' Home) and fitted with a Dictaphone motor, the rest is a Toroidial transformer to bring UK Voltage down to an acceptable level for the American motor as well as fuses and 90 ohms worth of resistors to limit the current and give the governor half a chance to bring the speed down low enough.

Currently it's not playing too bad, and I only electrocuted myself twice!

The Cylinder playing here is Harry Lauder- Rob Roy Mackintosh, Edison 19173, it is in bad condition as you an hear so I hope to find a better copy someday.

https://youtu.be/hksMF7_deck

[Menophanes]

Surely this machine must originally have been a Model A, since it had the exposed speed-control (now of course removed), the old style of end-gate knob, and the signature on the top rather than the front of the motor-board? As such it would have had a long shallow case of much the same proportions as the present one, but with the banner on the front instead of the later script-style logo; the latter, I understand, was not introduced until a year or so after the change to the taller case. Is it certain that the case has been cut down? It could be that somebody has simply re-finished the original case and, for some reason, applied a facsimile of the later logo.

This conversion seems to have been done much more carefully than one which came my way a few years ago. That was also a Home (Model B), but the motor was a rubbishy affair which had no governor and could not be used in conjunction with a rheostat, so that there was no way of reducing its speed (an insane 207 r.p.m.) to an acceptable level. (I wrote about it here at the time.*) Another idiocy was that the drive-belt ran directly on the end of the motor shaft, rather than on a sprocket as in Kirtley2012's example; of course it could not grip on such a small circumference. After much fumbling, I scrapped the motor and converted the machine back to its original specification. It is now an ordinary-looking Model B Home which, I think, shows no sign of having been put together from five different sources; it has cost me twice what it is worth, but at least I have saved it as a working phonograph.

Congratulations on finding such a compact transformer! I had no idea that such things existed.

Oliver Mundy.

*Image below; the 'windmill' on the flywheel was my futile attempt to bring the speed down by means of air-resistance.

[kirtley2012]

Hi Oliver

I ran across the thread of your machine when trying to figure out mine

The top works are definitely model A with added combination capabilities, but the case was model B or later, it hasn't been refinished but has been cut down, it can be seen by the rough edge along the bottom where it was cut down, it is probably the same height as an A now, though I'm going to look at it and see how much space is in the case and maybe cut it down a bit more, only the top part of the casting has any originality about it so I may just keep experimenting with it

Yes, the best way to power these things would be an old governored motor such as is shown here, but a decent quality modern motor with good torque and steady enough speed can be connected to a variable capacitor (a dimmer switch would work, might not be best for the motor, but shoud work), this may have worked with yours, however then torque and speed consistency would have came into question.

When I got this some pulley notches had been filed into the shaft, with the same problem, the belt wouldst grip so I basically used the motor as a wood lathe and made a wooden pulley wheel

Yeah, I wouldn't have found it without help, that's a 230v to 110v transformer, very efficient although some motors can run on UK voltage the resistors needed are huge, so a transformer to knock the voltage down means less resistance is needed, as well you can hear, works well

[drh]

Really glad to see the old boy up and running after years of sitting all forlorn in our utility room. Great work!