The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

A friend has this recorder and would like some help identifying it. What machine(s) does it belong to? There is a weight inside the tube at the open end of the recorder. Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob

Looks to me like a later model recorder/reproducer
for some kind of a dictation machine.

You can see what clearly looks like the remains
of where the now missing playback stylus once was mounted.

The way those work is that the record/playback
selector lever on the machine moves this whole unit
forward or back in accordance with which of the two
styli are to be in position for use.

The construction of it gives it away as a later model,
probably from the late 1930s, or the 1940s. The thin
aluminum housing, combined with the bendable tabs holding
it together clearly show that it was never meant to
be serviced. Just try opening one of those up, and the
tabs break off.

Another clue is the solid aluminum stylus holder.
Those did not appear until about 1930.

The good news is that most of these still work
great, and do not need to be taken apart.

Spot on chuck. This is from a cameo model dictaphone.

Martin

Ahh. Nice. I've got a Dictaphone Cameo model
shaver and a Cameo transcriber, but no Cameo model record/playback machine.

The Dictaphone record/playback machine that I do have
is a much older model 12. Its recorder/reproducer
operates the same way as the one pictured in this thread,
but it is of an older design.

The solid aluminum stylus holder shown on the
recorder/reproducer in this thread is very similar
to some very late ones which were used in the much more
recent Dictaphones which recorded and played electrically.

Those electric Dictaphones were most likely still
being used in some offices well into the 1960s.