Very Tiny Horn

[Shane]

I traded some phono-related things with another collector today. The guy brought me a Harmony suitcase model phonograph. Its pretty much an average suitcase model, nothing to jump up and down about. The pot metal arm and reproducer have totally crumbled, so that's a project in the making.

However, inside the suitcase was this strange horn, apparently unrelated to the machine:




Does anybody know what this is? It is very tiny. It has a collar that is similar in diameter to a victor machine, complete with the little slot for the pin of an exhibition or #2 backflange. The bell of the horn measures 3 ½" inches, and the whole thing is made of aluminum. My guess is a part from a toy phonograph, or a piece from some sort of attachment. Any ideas?

[estott]

looks like the horn used on the Grippa portable- their soundbox had a little horn attached to the front of the soundbox, the rest of the machine was a fairly ordinary portable.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pixie-Grippa-Wind ... 48001r3982

[gramophoneshane]

It certainly is the "extra auxiliary" Pixie-grippa horn!
They are very hard to come by & in great demand as most machines that turn up today are minus the horn.

[Shane]

Wow, thanks for the information! Are these things American made, or was this a European company?

[gramophoneshane]

They were made by Perophone of London, which was the brand name for Vernon Lockwood Manufacturing Co..

[Shane]

I was wondering about that, since I live in California. That explains why I have never seen one of these, let alone even heard of one. Wind up phonographs are generally somewhat hard to find around here, but foreign machines and parts are virtually non-existent!

[gramophoneshane]

foreign machines and parts are virtually non-existent!

LOL, and so are those horns! I know of at least 3 people who are looking for one out here.
I think you ebay it, you'll probably get close to the price of a full sized horn.

[Shane]

That's great. I'll probably ebay it when I get the chance, as this horn is obviously of no use to me.

I took a look at the Harmony machine that accompanied this horn, and I noticed something quite interesting. The machine has the typical "tonearm and horn inside the suitcase setup" like most portables have.... but it seems this reproducer came with a hole on the other side of the reproducer as well. The hole is large, and the small Pixie-Grippa horn does not fit in the hole, but it appears the owner got ahold of this horn and tried to use it that way.

Note this is not a "Harmony Disc" machine with a large spindle, but a later standard machine. The reproducer seems to be some sort of attempt at a "duplex" type setup. And yes, the pot metal is all busted up.

[Shane]

Okay, so I finally figured this thing out after taking the broken reproducer apart. This appears to be some creative person's experiment in connecting two horns to a portable machine. The reproducer was turned around backwards, and had a plate of metal soldered on which connected the front of the reproducer to the tonearm. The other side, which would normally connect to the tonearm, has the hole sticking outwards to connect to the small horn.

[Odeon]

Maybe this isn´t a amateurish attempt, I found this on a side from Japan:

soundbox12.jpg (25.73 KiB) Viewed 3350 times

It is called a "ADD-A-TONE" Sound box