Electric Edison Home: how can I slow it down?

[briankeith]

Maybe? On EBay fairly cheap (?)

[Menophanes]

I think I shall wait a while to see if any 240-volt examples of the Edison Universal Motor appear. I am not eager to lay out GBP80 or so on a 110/240v transformer (a damnably bulky object) on top of everything else. Meanwhile I can experiment with enlarging the pulley as described; this will cost nothing and should be easily reversible if it does not work or a better method presents itself.

Ideally I would fit a Model B reproducer and configure this machine to play brown-wax cylinders, since my other phonograph (Standard Model B) has proved incapable of going below 151 r.p.m. and is therefore useless for that purpose. This would of course require a solution which allowed me to adjust the speed (from 120 or even less up to 144) instead of restricting me to one fixed rate.

I shall report progress if I make any. Meanwhile, thank you again for your help.

Oliver Mundy.

[Menophanes]

Since my last posting I have decided to return this machine to spring-driven operation. I have ordered an original Home motor, and I have already got a set of mounting screws with their springs.

Two things sabotaged my many efforts to make sense of the existing electric motor: firstly, it was essentially unsuitable, as several of you have pointed out; secondly, there was no means of tensioning the drive-belt. I could not use a normal leather belt because of this, and all my attempts to find a substitute failed because the belt was too stiff or too elastic or a micron too long (so that it slipped) or a micron too short (so that the motor simply refused to turn) or, when I seemed to have solved all other problems, it developed a manic tendency to creep sideways and crawl right over the pulley flanges with the dogged persistence of a tortoise escaping from a sunken garden. A strip cut from the top of a Wellington boot brought me nearest to success; the machine ran, and my idea of enlarging the top pulley with a 'tyre' built up from strips of cardboard was sound enough in principle, but the speed was so erratic that I could have done better by spinning the mandrel by hand.

As for the idea of using an Edison Universal or dictating-machine motor, I am afraid I needed to have been born on the other side of the water. By the time I had added in the cost of transatlantic shipping, customs duty and a 110/240-volt transformer, I would have spent far more than the price of the Home motor, with the problem of improvising a mounting-plate still unsolved.

Thus, instead of a rag-bag of irreconcilable parts I shall soon have a recognisable Model B Home, albeit in a very peculiar cabinet. Perhaps one day I shall be able to replace that as well.

Oliver Mundy.

[Curt A]

Here is a link to makers of modern cylinder and disc phonographs. The example that I like uses a Home topworks driven by a stepper motor and controller to adjust speed without configuring pulleys, gears or governors. The parts are readily available from China and all it takes is some imagination...

Keith Harrison in the UK: http://www.christerhamp.se/phono/harrison-mk2.html
http://www.christerhamp.se/phono/

[tomb]

I think I shall wait a while to see if any 240-volt examples of the Edison Universal Motor appear. I am not eager to lay out GBP80 or so on a 110/240v transformer (a damnably bulky object) on top of everything else. Meanwhile I can experiment with enlarging the pulley as described; this will cost nothing and should be easily reversible if it does not work or a better method presents itself.

Ideally I would fit a Model B reproducer and configure this machine to play brown-wax cylinders, since my other phonograph (Standard Model B) has proved incapable of going below 151 r.p.m. and is therefore useless for that purpose. This would of course require a solution which allowed me to adjust the speed (from 120 or even less up to 144) instead of restricting me to one fixed rate.

I shall report progress if I make any. Meanwhile, thank you again for your help.

Oliver Mundy.

With you other B machine You may try adjusting the governor to slow it down. Do it by adjusting the brass governor flywheel back a little from the friction pads. here is one screw on the front of the gov, that will need loosing. This may slow it down enough to play the cylinders. It is a good machine to play brown cylinders with a automatic reproducer not a C or B. Those could damage the brown ones, a B or C reproducer can be used on the black wax cylinders. If you had the B I would check it on the brown wax cylinder to make sure it is not damaging it. Tom B

[Menophanes]

With your other B machine You may try adjusting the governor to slow it down. Do it by adjusting the brass governor flywheel back a little from the friction pads. here is one screw on the front of the gov, that will need loosing. This may slow it down enough to play the cylinders. It is a good [idea] to play brown cylinders with a automatic reproducer not a C or B. Those could damage the brown ones, a B or C reproducer can be used on the black wax cylinders. If you had the B I would check it on the brown wax cylinder to make sure it is not damaging it. Tom B

Tom, thank you for your suggestions. Since writing my earlier message I have learned that JAS Antiques produce a faithful copy of an Automatic Reproducer, which is clearly a safer option than a B. This will almost certainly be my next phonographic self-indulgence.

Oliver Mundy.