The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi all,

I am the very happy new owner of this 2 clip Edison Standard.

As it is pretty obvious, it needs some care to recover all its beauty.
After two days of investigation I have lots of questions and surprises.
The very good news is that the machine looks like it has been very little used.
Its serial number is S13232 and its not in the Martin's Kauper registry.

It's a machine for the UK market so instead of having the usual patent plate it has this one:

The big surprise is that it came with the very scarce Edison Standard Speaker reproducer in pristine condition.



It needs the shoe to be reglued to the glass diaphragm and of course new gaskets. Both the sapphire and cutter are like new.

So here are my questions:
- What winder is the correct one? The straight one or the "S shaped" one? If it is the S shaped one, does it need the famous medaillon?
- I need to recreate the top and bottom boards. I know that there are all the possible combinations of chamfered lids, decorating lips, routed bottom profiles, etc. So I will be very grateful if you help me decide how the top and bottom board should be profiled knowing that both lid and case have a small lip on the top.


- As you can see in the first picture, it came also with a small square piece of wood. I think that it was a reinforcing piece of the corners but I dont see obvious traces of glue in the interior.
- I'm also looking for a shaver and the lid handle. I can reproduce the handle if I don't find one at good price but I will happily buy the shaver if I find one sensibly priced.

I will start this restoration in September-October so I have time to investigate and find the correct missing pieces.

Stay tuned!

Regards,

Pedro Martinez.

That is a nice two clip Edison Bell square box. It also has a nice standard reproducer. Nice package. The crank takes a different one than a standard as it has a smaller hole to put on the crank shaft, It also has straight shaft and not a crocked one on a standard crank but the standard crank will work only it more sloppy to crank.. The bottom base will not be hard to make as it almost looks like a standard. The top section has different routing and you may have to locate one. Those Edison Bells were made for the Edison Corp in England. They were made from serial number aprox. 500 to around aprox. 15000 of and on in the Edison plant One of the shots shows where the gear cover goes and that it had been drilled for both a straight gear cover ar a angled cover. Tom

You have there the most scarce of all Edison reproducers!! Congratulations!

It is now.



Pedro -
As others have said, you have a very nice machine. Considering your talented restorations already posted on this forum, I'm sure that this will turn out a prized example of an early Standard. I'd encourage you to try to save the original case. (Yes folks, I'm a bleeding heart purist.) Your case would look like the one that Tom posted. As you have guessed, that top edge cut is likely from the original profiling.

As has been noted, the Standard Speaker is rare. It was only issued on the first Standards. Most people opted for the upgrade to the Automatic reproducer or the Model C, so there are few survivors with the Standard Speaker intact. This version of the Standard Speaker is interesting as it has no serial number and (as far as I can tell in the photos) no lettering anywhere on the body. I've seen this before on UK export machine #873 (an Automatic reproducer). Both reproducers look properly old, but I can't tell if they were made by Edison in N.J. or in the UK by who knows? I'd love it if Steve Medved could weigh in on this.

If you decide to make the wood parts (rather than use cannibalized replacements), I'm sure everybody here would be happy to provide measurements. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Martin

Thank you Martin and Tom for all your information.

I'm also quite a purist and like to preserve as many pieces as possible. Usually I make the new parts as exact replicas as I can BUT with something that the trained eye can differentiate them from a genuine one: Different knurled pattern, stamped "M", etc. I will make the new wood top and bottom boards, handle and its hardware.

My first challenge is to try to find American white oak in this side of the pond at a price less than solid gold and without the need of buying a full forest

I need to know the thickness of these 2 boards. The lateral boards are ⅓ inch thick but I suspect that the top and bottom might be ½. Can anybody confirm my suspicion?

Regarding the reproducer, I've dismantled it to replace the gaskets that where rock dry. It's a little marvel how all pieces fit together and after doing some forensic study in the screws (diameter, tpi, thread profile, head shape) I'm sure that this reproducer comes from an Edison factory.

It would be very interesting if somebody could locate the owner of the 12021 serial number to check if the reproducer has serial number or not like mine. It's the only other Standard for the UK market with Standard Speaker reproducer registered on the list.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Regards,

Pedro Martínez

I forgot to mention another detail that points to the fact that its a genuine reproducer:

The lever of the reproducer has a tiny "T" stamped un the underside.


And I've found this threads that show pictures of the Standard Speaker and they have also the tiny T stamped on the lever:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30127&hilit=edison+standard+speaker
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=25735&hilit=edison+standard+speaker

Regards,

Pedro Martínez

Mystery solved!

During lunchtime I took my industrial cleaning towels to clean the reproducer parts.

To my delight, under the dust a faint serial number appeared!


54061

Regards,

Pedro Martínez

Pedro -

Great news on your finding the serial number for the Standard Speaker.

I’m beginning to repent my quick identification of your case. As a general thing, the early cases for the Standard A started with the lid having a profiled top edge and a beaded bottom edge and the bottom case having a plain top edge.





This configuration started to change in the 12000s. For a time, the top edge of the lid had the profile, but the bottom edge of the lid was straight. The bead was moved to the top edge of the bottom case.

The profiled top edge of the lid quickly gave way to the blunt/rounded top edge that we see on all of the subsequent Squaretop Standard cases. It is possible there were transitional versions during the switch. My 13452 has no beaded edge on the top or bottom. However that machine had passed through the hands of a collector who I have since observed swapping-out cases and not noting it - therefore I can’t absolutely say that it was really that way from the Edison Works.

Upon carefully comparing the photo of your lid with mine (from #873), the indentation at the top looks more like a sawed-off bead which should then be at the bottom of the lid close to where the clip attaches. This brings up the question if the lid was flipped over after or before initial assembly? Filled screw holes for the clips would indicate that. They would also indicate a conversion from 4 clip bottom to 2 clip top. If the current top edge of the lid really was the top edge there should be evidence of small nails.

The other possibility is that the lid is a replacement made from a bottom case that had the beaded top edge sawed-off. If that were so, then there should be evidence of screw holes on the bottom edge (near where the clip is attached). You might also in that case find two sets of screw holes for the clips.

Your machine was made during the time of the change-over so any number of possibilities exist. I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom (or top) of this.

Regards,
Martin

Hi Martin,

Thank you for all your information. I took the case to investigate all your questions and these are mu findings:


As you can see in this picture, the profile of the lid indentation (left) is more square that the indentation of the base (right) so I think that its not a flipped lid.


No filled holes at all in the case nor nail holes in the top edge. It's really clean all around and the only tiny hole I can see is caused by a wood worm.


As said before, there are not traces of filled holes at all so it's not a 4 clip converted case or a flipped 2 clip case. The only nail/screw holes that I can see are 2 on bottom edge in the middle of the short sections. Also note that the lid is slightly taller than the base (see 1st picture)


I find fascinating this kind of investigations!
Next week I will start the search of a router bit(s) to mill the correct lid and base boards profile. Let's continue investigation till we have a consensus of the correct profile and thickness of both boards.

Thanks you all for your help!

Pedro Martínez

Hi all,

Three months without updating this thread! I hope the wait will be worth it.

So last time I was investigating about the profiles of the missing top and bottom boards of the case. I found the correct router bits with 6mm shaft but when they arrived they were ¼ inch shaft (6,35 mm)... I managed to correct that with the lathe.

So I milled de boards, (plenty of dust so no pictures), did some research about color matching and voila! From the outside the color matching is very good but I left the inside without matching to clearly state that those boards were replaced.



Then it was time to make the handle. I had the screws and the wire but not the wooded part.I made the decision of making it without the ridges on the sides so they cannot be confused for a genuine one. In the future it can be replaced by genuine one and installing with only undoing 2 nuts.



The latches were de-rusted and I replaced the internal spring blade of one of them that was broken. Now both close with a very satisfying CLICK!

The sapphire of the shaver was missing so I ordered a watch sapphire glass, cut and polished it with diamond slurry until it had the correct shape.



I tested it with a terribly scored brown was cylinder (a modern one, not a single piece of historic recording was harmed in the making of this restoration...)
It shaved like a champion!


Of course, the little container of the shaver was clearly not enough for the task so plenty of sticky and messy wax powder ended everywhere.



I spotted that the little wheel under the reproducer was not straight. I unscrewed it and saw that the screw needed to be repaired. I was able to straighten it without breaking and now the wheel turns straight and freely.

The last phase of the restoration was inspecting, cleaning and oiling where needed. I full dismantled it (incredible amounts of century old dust, dry graphite grease and dirt everywhere so no pictures), de-rusted some parts and reassembled it.
I made some recordings and I'm delighted with them. I even managed to record the 2 minuts and 22 seconds of "Je ne regrette rien" of Edith Piaff by lowering the speed but cannot upload it on Youtube because of the copyright. If you want to hear it drop me a PM.

On the next post the final pictures!