564586 Berliner Recording Gramophone

[JohnM]

Glass turntable

[Inigo]

As a fast silly thought... Would a record made with this machine sound in reverse....?

[Menophanes]

Am I right in understanding that the ink-coated recording blank was mounted under the turntable and was recorded on its lower side? Certainly the drawing is clear in showing the claw-shaped stylus (no. 29) pointing upwards.

The governor seems to be of the 'fly' or air-resistance type, as used for hundreds of years in the striking mechanisms of clocks.

The recording horn surely cannot have been as tiny as it appears here; it must have been compressed in order to fit it into the drawing.

Was this model ever actually used? The new wax-cutting process would in any event have rendered it obsolete within four years.

Oliver Mundy.

[Lucius1958]

Am I right in understanding that the ink-coated recording blank was mounted under the turntable and was recorded on its lower side? Certainly the drawing is clear in showing the claw-shaped stylus (no. 29) pointing upwards.

The governor seems to be of the 'fly' or air-resistance type, as used for hundreds of years in the striking mechanisms of clocks.

The recording horn surely cannot have been as tiny as it appears here; it must have been compressed in order to fit it into the drawing.

Was this model ever actually used? The new wax-cutting process would in any event have rendered it obsolete within four years.

Oliver Mundy.

This was Berliner's original 1887 design, soon superseded by his adoption of acid-etched zinc discs; it was certainly obsolete by the time the patent was granted.

The speaking tube probably would have been much longer; but the mouthpiece is about the size he would have used.

I suppose the inverted stylus was to allow the ink 'swarf' to fall away from the glass disc (shown fixed directly to the machine, without a separate turntable) without having to brush it off.

- Bill

[recordmaker]

Yes to what Bill said re the recording and "swarf" falling off .
Re small horn
Also Fred Gaisberg mentions his first visit to Berliner and the singer ( possibly Bert Shepherd ) with a "muzzel" on his face and the shape of the horn on this one is quite suggestive of that sort of device .
Re hand power
Fred writes that "Berliner shouted go! and began to crank like a barrel organ", suggesting a hand powered device was used for this and the first etched zinc process that I assume Fred was working with at his first visit.
Re Obsolete process
There is a possibility that pushing this (then obsolete) patent through was to maintain a priority in the USA for disc recording, note the British patent was granted earlier ( 1887 ) as quoted in the document.