The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

‘Double-Bell Wonder’

Very interesting. I am also a sax player. Conn had some unbelievable horn innovations, some never caught on but were marvelous nevertheless.

I see an issue. You would not want both horns to be out of phase, they would cancel much like a raw speaker with no enclosure of flat baffle. I must have missed something.

A rare machine indeed - sad to say, the patented version was not actually made in all its glorious details, as the original intent was to provide a mechanical feed-pivot support-gearing across the face of the 7" disc. The manufactured oak cabinet, when found, always had a small brass plug in the corner to act as a "filler" since the rotating pivot was not actually installed.

More about this early competitor of Berliner (founders/stockholders) can be found in the AP magazine (Mar 2022), pp. 26 - 28. Most of the Wonder records were a slate-red in color (quite rare now). Their 1898 catalog was a tribute to chicanery.

Best
Allen

I have a book with a picture of a 'Lioret no. 2 gramophone' which uses a similar arrangement of two horns being connected to the one sound box. There is another devilish looking machine where there is a bifurcation at the end of the tone arm from which rise two scary looking horns. It is called the Schele. I guess there were all sorts of crazy inventions in the early days of gramophones.......