Expert Electrical Conversion

[An Balores]

Hello, quick question - is there any way of telling whether an Expert gramophone has been converted at some point from spring driven to electric motor? Like the flex entering the cabinet through what obviously looks like a winding handle escutcheon?

[poodling around]

Hello, quick question - is there any way of telling whether an Expert gramophone has been converted at some point from spring driven to electric motor? Like the flex entering the cabinet through what obviously looks like a winding handle escutcheon?

Presumably there would be some extra holes in the motor-board which would show if a (spring) motor had been previously installed ?

Maybe there would also be some smaller holes in the motor-board which show that a previous speed controller and brake were present ?

[epigramophone]

Hello, quick question - is there any way of telling whether an Expert gramophone has been converted at some point from spring driven to electric motor? Like the flex entering the cabinet through what obviously looks like a winding handle escutcheon?

The flex entering through the winding handle escutcheon is an obvious sign that the machine was originally spring powered. An Expert which has always been electrically powered will have the flex entering through a small hole in the rear of the cabinet.
Here is a picture showing the flex entering the rear of my Expert.

Expert machines first appeared in 1930, before the creation of the National Grid in the UK. I have seen machines which have been converted from electric to spring power, presumably because the owner moved to a location which was not yet "on the mains".

[An Balores]

Thank you 'epigramophone' for confirming what I had guessed. So it seems mine was originally clockwork, then converted to electric, and then I converted it back to clockwork because when I found it, the electric motor was completely kaput. The tell-tale sign now is a little hole in the motorboard where the on/off switch for the electric motor had been previously installed.