My First BUSH & LANE Duo-Vox

[CDBPDX]

Assuming the diamond is conical, as was Edison's, would it matter which way the reproducer faces when playing a DD?

It might if the orientation of the needle bar is significant.

ps - Wyatt's page on this reproducer is not available; let's see if anybody can open my saved file:

https://app.box.com/s/6wxy2qkxel6l4qi2tp53

I was unable to open your file.

Cliff

[CDBPDX]

Took apart my spare Duo-Vox lateral reproducer to see what makes it tick. Here are the results. The needle holder pivots on 2 cones projecting down from the reproducer ring. The tiny spring keeps tension on the string by pressing on the end of the needle bar and the diaphragm. The center of the diaphragm is a separate circular piece seated inside the hole in the cork. It sits on a cushion between the separate piece and the diaphragm. Pretty well engineered. Bet they didn't have any issues with patent infringements!

Cliff

[alang]

Thanks for the close-up pictures. What an intricate design. These reproducers must have been quite expensive to manufacture. They probably had a hard time competing with other "simpler" designs.

Andreas

[Edisone]

https://app.box.com/s/s333ytv5um18snwzctl1

[CDBPDX]

https://app.box.com/s/s333ytv5um18snwzctl1

Great article and pictures! Thanks! I especially like the description.

Looks like this reproducer was rebuilt using the 'common' white rubberish material used for just about every other disc reproducer (except the Victor No.2). Cool! I was wondering where I'd find suitable replacement gaskets for these, though I don't think I'm going to mess with them since they already work great.

Cliff

P.S. - Here is a peek inside the tee of the tone arm - has 2 holes, one for each reproducer.

[CDBPDX]

Took apart my spare Duo-Vox lateral reproducer to see what makes it tick. Here are the results. The needle holder pivots on 2 cones projecting down from the reproducer ring. The tiny spring keeps tension on the string by pressing on the end of the needle bar and the diaphragm. The center of the diaphragm is a separate circular piece seated inside the hole in the cork. It sits on a cushion between the separate piece and the diaphragm. Pretty well engineered. Bet they didn't have any issues with patent infringements!

Cliff

Today, I attached the spare lateral reproducer to the B & L phonograph and it also works great! Very happy with that.


Cliff

[CDBPDX]

Today, I also thought I should clean up the spare B & L tone arm. I took apart the base of the tone arm, expecting to find 5 little ball bearings or something, like the Victor and other tone arms. Nope. There were 46 tiny greasy ball bearings that just fell out when I unscrewed the inner ring of the base. Glad I was doing this over a bowl..

Looking at the disassembled pieces, it finally dawned on me the bearings had to go in the little slot around the bottom of the tone arm. There was no race to keep them in there, though, so I gunked up the slot with grease and stuck the ball bearings to the grease in the slot one at a time, all 46 of them. Then I pulled up the base of the tone arm around these stuck in grease bearings and started to screw in the inner ring. Suddenly, there were little ball bearings all over the place. And they were sticky with grease, so wherever the landed, they stuck. Finally rounded them all up and started over. I went through this farce 3 times before I was successful the fourth time in getting all the bearings in place and the inner ring screwed in. Whew!

I recommend that unless the tone arm on yours is just rusted tight that you leave it be. Unless you know a better way to reassemble it.

Cliff