Kurtzmann phonograph brochure for sale

[estott]

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-KURTZMANN-ELEC ... 286.c0.m14

I can see why these machines are rare. The combination of period elements with large areas of plate glass looks just plain awkward to me. The fact that you can look inside and see the electric motor must get old very fast.

[bbphonoguy]

Did you notice that even the machines without lids have an electric light next to the turntable? Perhaps because it wouldn't occur to anyone to turn a lamp on while changing records?

Having said that, it would be neat to find one of these machines. I notice that all the endorsements in the brochure are from Buffalo residents. Anyone out there ever seen one of these, or know how long the company was in business?

[bbphonoguy]

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1447215.pdf

Gee. I may have to wipe a little egg off my face. It turns out there was actually a practical idea behind the glass panels incorporated in the design. The above link will take you to the patent for these machines, which states that the glass portions of the cabinet were an attempt to improve sound quality. The patent's dated 1923, and I'm going to guess that the company most likely folded during the depression, so now I have an idea of when these were being made.

Still has anyone seen one of these? I have to admit, if the price was right I would get one myself (if I could).

[estott]

At least one exists and is pictured in a Fabrizio/Paul book. I'd say the acoustic ideas expressed in the patent are suspicious- Kurtzmann was a piano manufacturer (superb instruments) and if glass cases improved the tone they should have made a glass piano.

[bbphonoguy]

I'd say the acoustic ideas expressed in the patent are suspicious- Kurtzmann was a piano manufacturer (superb instruments) and if glass cases improved the tone they should have made a glass piano.

Well, I did say there was a practical "idea" behind the glass parts, not a pracitical reality.

Did you notice that even the turntable is made of glass? Even if many of these were sold, how many could possibly have survived in decent shape?

I'm going to invent a phonograph made entirely of strawberries and whipped cream. The turntable will be made from a waffle. It will have terrible sound reproduction qualities but will taste great!

[JohnM]

I saw a Kurtzmann many years ago in a Buffalo collection. There was one on eBay repeatedly about 7 years ago that was in Canada. It had a large chip out of the glass on the front left corner of the top. I communicated with the owner but the chip prevented me from wanting it too badly.

A Kurtzmann has been on my short list for the past 40 years!

Thanks for posting the link to the eBay listing for the catalog. I can't seem to 'steal' the images from the listing for my photo reference library, though . . . has eBay changed something?

[gregbogantz]

Yes, eBay has changed the way they display pictures with their latest, mostly useless page layout that has the pictures at the upper left corner. It took me a while to figure out how to save the pictures from this new format. Probably our internet guru David can tell you how to do it in an easier fashion, but here's how I do it while using Firefox as a browser: Click on the thumbnail for the view that you want, located below the bigger picture frame to bring that picture to the larger frame. Then click on the larger frame to make a whole page out of it. Note that the other views are also shown as thumbnails in this new page. Right click on that new page and select the "Save Page As.." option. This will allow you to save the entire page as html files to a temporary folder of your choice. Rename the file before you save it to something you'll recognize later because the default file name will be something like "ebayISAPI.dll.htm" every time you do this. To get any other views saved, you have to close the current large picture page and go back to the original eBay page. Then click on the next thumbnail you want to get it to the display window and repeat the above process. It's a lot of fooling around, but I think eBay has done this on purpose to help prevent people from "stealing" pictures from eBay listings. After you have saved the pages, open the temporary folder where you have placed them. Each saved html page will be represented by several smaller files. Identify the largest .jpg file in that list - it should be the one you want. The other .jpg files are much smaller and represent the thumbnails from that page. Copy the desired .jpg file to your desired location. Repeat this for all the views that you have saved. Then you can delete the html files from your temporary folders. What a bother! David, is there an easier way?

[Victor78]

Ive noticed this too and it seems FireFox removed the option to "Save picture". But, I was messing around with The Opera browser the other day, and it still has Save Picture feature in it. Just an FYI post.

[phonophan79]

You can always do a screen grab.

CONTROL-PRINT SCREEN

then open something like windows paint and CONTROL-V to paste

you can save it as is or crop it down to the picture.

[JohnM]

Well, I scored the brochure for only $21.50! Now, if someone will just turn me on to one of the phonographs! Imagine how modern the 'Studio' must have seemed in 1918!