Craneophone

[An Balores]

Hi,
I wonder if anyone has any information about this 'Craneophone'? All I know is that it was manufactured by Crane and Sons Ltd. of Scotland Road, Liverpool. Not sure of its age. I have had it a while now and recently gave it a light restoration. One peculiar thing about it is that the tone arm has the cross-bar with the hole in the middle where it fixes to the horn bracket, where you would normally find (e.g. on an HMV) a corresponding bar with a pin to enable the tonearm to swivel, but this is not present. The tonearm just swivels in the horn elbow, which is not the ideal arrangement. I don't know why the arm contains the cross-bar but the bracket does not have the pin to secure it properly. It doesn't look like it ever had one to me. The horn is metal, but painted to look like oak.

[JerryVan]

The back bracket and tone arm look very much like an HMV product. Also, the tone arm sits suspiciously high above the turntable. With the reproducer lowered, does the U-Tube of the tone arm sit horizontal, or does it slope downwards? It's not all that uncommon for Victor tone arms to swivel only in the back bracket, without a swivel pin, but yes, if the arm has a cross bar, you expect to see the pin. There may have been some mixing of parts over the years. Again, what appears to be the HMV bracket & arm...

[An Balores]

Hello. The back bracket and tonearm are similar to an HMV, but not the same. The tone arm has a fatter taper, especially towards the bracket end, and the ring of the bracket in which it sits is correspondingly wider to take the arm. The bracket is fixed to the case by butterfly nuts, unlike my HMV. The end of the tonearm u-tube where the soundbox affixes is different too - it has a slot in the top, presumably where a screw was meant to secure the soundbox, but the screw-hole in the soundbox does not align with it if it is set at the correct angle to play a record. It is quite a snug fit though, so, even without the screw, the soundbox is securely fitted. There are two smaller slots in the underside of the u-tube, which I can't see the point of. Also, the distance between the part of the bracket where the supporting pin emerges and the upper ring is greater than an HMV and the pin itself protrudes a lot more (and is a simple pin, unlike the stepped arrangement on the HMV).
Yes, the tone arm does sit rather high above the turntable and the u-tube does slope downwards when the machine is playing (which is why the soundbox screw-hole and the aforementioned slot do not line up if the needle angle is set correctly for playing a record). If the bracket were fixed lower in the case, this would rectify this issue.
The decal on the front of the case says 'Craneophone'.

[Hoodoo]

Are there any extra holes in the back that might suggest that the bracket was originally mounted a bit lower on the case?

[epigramophone]

Crane & Sons Ltd claimed to be the largest musical instrument dealers in the North of England, but they were not manufacturers. This period Crane-o-Phone advertisement clearly shows a machine of Pathé origin, so your machine is also likely to have been bought in.
The question is, from whom?

I have an article on Crane & Sons Ltd in preparation for a future issue of the CLPGS magazine.

[An Balores]

Are there any extra holes in the back that might suggest that the bracket was originally mounted a bit lower on the case?

No, there are no redundant holes anywhere in the case. I am almost tempted to believe that the machine was put together by someone who didn't fully understand how these things should function (i.e. the lack of a pin in the bracket ring to allow the tone arm to swivel smoothly, despite the arm itself having the 'female' fitting, and the too high position of the bracket in the case).

[An Balores]

Crane & Sons Ltd claimed to be the largest musical instrument dealers in the North of England, but they were not manufacturers. This period Crane-o-Phone advertisement clearly shows a machine of Pathé origin, so your machine is also likely to have been bought in.
The question is, from whom?

I have an article on Crane & Sons Ltd in preparation for a future issue of the CLPGS magazine.

Thank you for this extra information. If the machine was bought in as you suggest, Crane and Sons had no qualms about badging it up as one of their own with the 'Craneophone' decal on the front of the case. Anyone hazard a guess on its date? There are certain features in the styling of the case which suggest to me the Edwardian era.

[Oedipus]

Nothing unusual in a dealer badging a machine either bought in or made up in their own workshop from bought-in parts. But that high tone-arm suggests to me that the back bracket is not original to the machine, and is set too high because it has been fitted to the bolt holes of whatever was there originally.

As to date, if the tone-arm is original, then it will be post WW1; the gooseneck was a jealously guarded Gramophone Co patent in the Edwardian era, and a respectable firm like Cranes would not have infringed that patent. Had they done so, they would have lost their Gramophone Co agency and probably have been taken to court as well.

[An Balores]

It is possible that it is not the original bracket and tone arm, but how the hell do you lose a bracket, tonearm and horn? I think these three all go together as they all fit together - the horn neck, the elbow and the ring of the bracket being wider than the usual HMV combo. The bolts for the bracket are, however, the same distance from each other as on an HMV, although not the same design - on this one, the bolts the butterfly nuts screw on to are a one-piece 'C' shaped bolt, threaded at either end (but with right-angled bends, more like an 'E' with the middle bar missing). My HMV has two round-headed bolts which screw through a metal plate inside the case. Incidentally, I am not entirely sure which exact model my HMV is - but that can be the subject of a further post!

[JerryVan]

It is possible that it is not the original bracket and tone arm, but how the hell do you lose a bracket, tonearm and horn?

Happened all the time!