Standard G?

[EdisonWizard]

Hasn't there been a discussion whether a G ever existed? I was prowling thru eBay and saw these edison papers...and a G is listed. Thought it was interesting, and didn't remember the argument for them.

[52089]

There is commentary on the Model G here:

http://www.antiquephono.org/spotters-gu ... honograph/

and here:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... f=2&t=2833

[PeterF]

In a nutshell, there is at least one Standard G known to exist. It belongs to Al Sefl, who co-authored one of the earliest phono hobby books that attempted to document and catalog the various Edison model lines, The Edison Cylinder Companion.

Al is a completist, and made it his collecting goal to find and obtain at least one of every single Edison cylinder machine model ever sold. He largely achieved that, with much success contributed by the fact that he was doing it in the 60s and 70s. No internet to help find stuff, but way more stuff to be found.

When creating the book, Al was thus able to get photos of many of the models by merely hauling his own unit out onto the patio and shooting it. I believe subsequent editions may have them edited out, but several of the shots have Al's toes intruding into a corner of the frame.

What does all this have to do with the G? Well, on the day Al was shooting the Standards, he noticed that the case on his G was a little tatty compared to the F he had just photographed. Since the cases were otherwise identical, he just temporarily switched the G mechanism to the F case for a moment, to have better cosmetics for the picture.

Well, that book was all we had for a long time, and has become sort of a legendary and almost biblical type of reference. And like the various religionist bibles, this bible is taken literally, or interpreted, or misinterpreted...and argued over. But it might be hard to get the area code for Corinth...and unlike saints Peter and Paul, one can phone old Al, who is still kicking. Sharp eyes have noticed that the F and G cases are the same case, and that is where the controversy arose. But Al has set it straight.

Al's stuff is copious as one might imagine, and sadly is also well buried, so the prospect of getting a current photo of the G is dim.

But that's the story.

[EdisonWizard]

In a nutshell, there is at least one Standard G known to exist. It belongs to Al Sefl, who co-authored one of the earliest phono hobby books that attempted to document and catalog the various Edison model lines, The Edison Cylinder Companion.

Al is a completist, and made it his collecting goal to find and obtain at least one of every single Edison cylinder machine model ever sold. He largely achieved that, with much success contributed by the fact that he was doing it in the 60s and 70s. No internet to help find stuff, but way more stuff to be found.

When creating the book, Al was thus able to get photos of many of the models by merely hauling his own unit out onto the patio and shooting it. I believe subsequent editions may have them edited out, but several of the shots have Al's toes intruding into a corner of the frame.

What does all this have to do with the G? Well, on the day Al was shooting the Standards, he noticed that the case on his G was a little tatty compared to the F he had just photographed. Since the cases were otherwise identical, he just temporarily switched the G mechanism to the F case for a moment, to have better cosmetics for the picture.

Well, that book was all we had for a long time, and has become sort of a legendary and almost biblical type of reference. And like the various religionist bibles, this bible is taken literally, or interpreted, or misinterpreted...and argued over. But it might be hard to get the area code for Corinth...and unlike saints Peter and Paul, one can phone old Al, who is still kicking. Sharp eyes have noticed that the F and G cases are the same case, and that is where the controversy arose. But Al has set it straight.

Al's stuff is copious as one might imagine, and sadly is also well buried, so the prospect of getting a current photo of the G is dim.

But that's the story.

Awesome informative post! Thanks for that! If it's so rare, why doesn't he pull it out and take pictures or something? Lol I feel like he could make his own museum!

[Victor A]

Since we're on the topic of late Edison machines, didn't he make an electric model called the Balmoral into the 1910s?

-Jack

[EdisonWizard]

Off topic- is anyone getting notifications of PMs and post replies? I'm not..

[Victor A]

Off topic- is anyone getting notifications of PMs and post replies? I'm not..

The reply feature is an option, and you'd need to select it whilst writing your post. The box is above the submit button. My incoming PMs come through my email without me selecting the reply button, and I suppose it'd be the same for everyone else with a registered email, but I'm no tech guy!

-Jack

[HisMastersVoice]

Off topic- is anyone getting notifications of PMs and post replies? I'm not..

It's currently broken, but I don't have access to see why. I've emailed our "landlord" asking to fix it as soon as possible.

[EdisonWizard]

Off topic- is anyone getting notifications of PMs and post replies? I'm not..

It's currently broken, but I don't have access to see why. I've emailed our "landlord" asking to fix it as soon as possible.

Awesome, thanks for the info! I have to remind myself to check lol