Are Edison LP switching attachments rare?

[wtt11]

Hi all, I'm consistently looking for Edison LP switching attachment but they seem to be less common showing up. Are they actually rare? On contrary, LP reproducers are showing up frequently. Presuming each reproducer matches one originally, I could see one at least... Thanks in advance!

[Garret]

They show up from time to time. Just be patient!

[fran604g]

Hi all, I'm consistently looking for Edison LP switching attachment but they seem to be less common showing up. Are they actually rare? On contrary, LP reproducers are showing up frequently. Presuming each reproducer matches one originally, I could see one at least... Thanks in advance!

Are you talking about the Long Play gearing assembly that was employed with a switch mounted to the right side of the DD motor plate or the 10" - 12" push buttons that were mounted on the left hand side of the wooden turntable trim piece?

I would love to see more discussion related to this topic.

Fran

[edisonplayer]

The late Jerry Donnell put an LP switching attachment on my C-250.I got a 10 inch and a 12 inch Edison LP from Jerry,but I don't have the reproducer.But the attachments do turn up from time to time.edisonplayer

[phonogfp]

Are you talking about the Long Play gearing assembly that was employed with a switch mounted to the right side of the DD motor plate or the 10" - 12" push buttons that were mounted on the left hand side of the wooden turntable trim piece?

I would love to see more discussion related to this topic.

Fran

I just want to clarify that the 10" & 12" positioning buttons appeared as early as 1922 (apparently for a proposed but never realized line of 12" Edison discs with the regular 150 tpi). The Long Play apparatus wasn't introduced until 1926. Clearly,the buttons were not initially designed for use with Long Play records, although after 1926 they were supplied with the Long Play outfit to aid in positioning the reproducer for the two sizes of records. There was a discussion about this here:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 916#p98916

George P.

[fran604g]

Thank you, George for inspiring me to try and better understand these two accessories.

To try and clarify what I consider a confusing topic (to myself especially):

The 10"-12" buttons and the Long Playing gearing mechanism were separate unrelated accessories.

It's my understanding that the 10"-12" buttons preceded the Long Playing record format and operated via mechanical means below the motor plate, by manipulating the outward travel of the reproducer/horn mechanism and allowing the user to select the starting point of playback to either the 10" or 12" record size. (The Re-Creations available to the public were only ever in the 10" 150 TPI format).

Later, TAE Inc. had introduced the "microgroove" record format of 450 TPI, in both 10" and 12" diameters, which needed a change in gearing for the DD mechanism to track this very different format, also a specific reproducer was needed for playing these recordings with a finer stylus ground to .002" (two thousandths of an inch) as opposed to the "standard" ground stylus. This is where the (Extra) Long Playing gearing assembly comes into importance.

The Long Playing Consoles would have had these two features (buttons and gearing) installed with their introduction in late 1926 (Frow, The Edison Diamond Disc Phonographs and the Diamond Discspg. 172). HOWEVER, there was also an available conversion kit that could be installed in existing Phonographs as an aftermarket offering (Frow, ibid., pg. 197). It included the Long Playing reproducer, a holder for it that would be mounted inside of the turntable compartment, a horn tracking gauge, horn aligning bar, the 10"-12" buttons, replacement feed shaft, gear shift assembly, shifting lever assembly and the necessary hardware.

Adding a second spring to the one spring motors was also a consideration, I might add.

In summation, the Long Playing gear change mechanism would have benefited from the diameter selecting buttons, but didn't necessarily need them as one could place the reproducer by hand manually and the earlier format (standard) Re-Creations didn't necessarily need them because there were only 10" records available anyway.

I hope I have it right,
Fran

[52089]

It's my understanding that the 10"-12" buttons preceded the Long Playing record format and operated via mechanical means below the motor plate, by manipulating the outward travel of the reproducer/horn mechanism and allowing the user to select the starting point of playback to either the 10" or 12" record size. (The Re-Creations available to the public were only ever in the 10" 150 TPI format).

I'd like to point out that the 10 and 12 buttons, by themselves, do absolutely nothing of value. You also have to have a metal bar that attaches to the horn, and this bar has to be adjusted to a fairly precise spot. The way this works is that the user would push a button down and hold it there, then swing the horn over towards the record. The metal tab on the horn would then intersect with a similar tab protruding from the button mechanism, causing the horn to stop in the proper place. To me it's a very Rube Goldberg type of arrangement and really quite unnecessary.

[phonogfp]

Fran,

You nailed it (except the Long Play equipment was not originally called "Extra Long Play...").

Kevin,

You nailed it too! Ultimately those buttons were simply a waste of money for T.A.E. Inc.

George P.

[fran604g]

It's my understanding that the 10"-12" buttons preceded the Long Playing record format and operated via mechanical means below the motor plate, by manipulating the outward travel of the reproducer/horn mechanism and allowing the user to select the starting point of playback to either the 10" or 12" record size. (The Re-Creations available to the public were only ever in the 10" 150 TPI format).

I'd like to point out that the 10 and 12 buttons, by themselves, do absolutely nothing of value. You also have to have a metal bar that attaches to the horn, and this bar has to be adjusted to a fairly precise spot. The way this works is that the user would push a button down and hold it there, then swing the horn over towards the record. The metal tab on the horn would then intersect with a similar tab protruding from the button mechanism, causing the horn to stop in the proper place. To me it's a very Rube Goldberg type of arrangement and really quite unnecessary.

Thanks, you're correct, for some reason unknown to me (multiple brain farts?) I edited my original sentence from the word "limit" to "manipulate". I shouldn't have done that.

Fran

[fran604g]

Fran,

You nailed it (except the Long Play equipment was not originally called "Extra Long Play...").

Kevin,

You nailed it too! Ultimately those buttons were simply a waste of money for T.A.E. Inc.

George P.

Thanks George, there's much more to this topic than I had previously thought! I noticed that Frow specifically mentions this topic as "Long Playing [Equipment]". I think I'll adopt this unabbreviated term to differentiate it from the other much more used and unrelated term "LP", which refers to the more "modern" recording format still in use today.

Fran