Business Phonograph - Is This Rare?

[winsleydale]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Edison-Business ... 6016.l4276

It looks like it is in good shape except for the missing screws and crank. How often do these turn up?

[FloridaClay]

Humm. First one I've ever seen, although I suspect a fair number may have been made. They are included in a chapter on business machines in Frow. Looks like this one is likely a circa 1905 model. They would have come with recording and listening tubes, per Frow.

I'm thinking that instead of the crank being missing, this one may be in an incorrect case inasmuch as it is an electric motor model. They came either spring or electric.

Clay

[EarlH]

I had one like that 35 years ago and they are interesting. Have almost nothing in common with a regular cylinder phonograph though as the number of grooves per inch are different than the 2 and 4 minute records. I think they are somewhere in between if I remember right. There is also a large pot metal belt pulley in them that can be a problem and I'm not sure how easily that can be had if it's gone south. I didn't have the one I had for long as someone came over the the house and offered my Dad $250 for it and when I got home from school, it was gone. That guy was pretty mad at me the next time I saw him! I think the shaver that matches that machine is of more interest if you do any recording on your regular cylinder phonograph. I don't remember who I sold the shave I had to. Probably Tom Fretty he could make money selling the damndest things.

[FloridaClay]

Frow indicates these were 150 t.p.i.

Clay

[winsleydale]

Do they take ediphone blanks or something?

[EarlH]

I should have looked at that one more closely, the one I had was spring wound. I don't remember what kind of blanks it took. I don't really remember if there was even any blanks that looked usable with it anymore. It had some sort of a rack to put them on, I kind of remember that.

[winsleydale]

It looks like it would, in theory, accept a regular brown wax blank.

[phonogfp]

The Edison Business Phonographs can indeed accommodate standard-size blanks, as well as records. As noted, these machines record and play at 150 TPI, which unfortunately is half-way between the 2-minute (100 TPI) and 4-minute (200 TPI) entertainment cylinders. There was a series of Ediphone Blue Amberols offered which will play well on these machines, but they are for the most part rather boring dictation practice. Thomas Edison himself speaks on one of the cylinders, but that's a tough one to find.

This article shows an early Business Phonograph (scroll down to the second-to-last photo):

http://www.antiquephono.org/encounterin ... onographs/

These machines don't turn up too often, and are an interesting variation in construction and utility from the entertainment machines. I can provide additional photos of this Business Phonograph if you need them.

George P.

[FloridaClay]

As I look at pictures of some other examples, this could be the right case. I noticed that on the spring wound models what I took on this one to be the hole for a crank in a side upper corner is evidently for something else, as the spring-wound one has that also and it is separate from the hole for the crank. Not sure why that hole is there. There are also 2 holes with no escutcheons in the back of the case and some sort of mysterious hex nut on the front of the case.

I am assuming (?) that since it has a "universal" motor it would have operated on either AC or DC current. I wonder what voltages and if there are, or were, resistors to set somewhere? And there must have been some sort of now long gone wires to connect the motor to the current source.

Clay

[phonogfp]

As I look at pictures of some other examples, this could be the right case. I noticed that on the spring wound models what I took on this one to be the hole for a crank in a side upper corner is evidently for something else, as the spring-wound one has that also and it is separate from the hole for the crank. Not sure why that hole is there.

That hole on the side near the front corner is for a pneumatic foot switch which engages/disengages the drive pulley.

George P.