Tonaphone speaker grille

[berntd]

Hello Shane and group

Unfortunately the pictures on the old forum of how the speaker grille is routed near the edges and fitted has been lost.

Could you please repost them here?

Since I now have the pattern of the gille (thank you shane), I will be working on this project soon.

Kind regards
Bernt

[gramophoneshane]

Hi Bernt,
I couldn't find the old ones, so here's a couple new ones. The second pic is a side view, but it's not very clear unfortunately. The grille is 8mm thick, and reduces to 4mm at the sides. On the back of the drawing I drew where they had reduced the timber. You'll notice it's not even all the way around, but that's just how mine is. To be honest, I'm not even sure why the bothered with the sides as they don't have to slot into anything. It would have been alot easier to just take 6-8mm off the top & bottom

[berntd]

Hi shane,

Thanks for that. Is the grille just slotted in or is it glued in place?
I have grooves at top and bottom in the machine but they are full of someo sort of either glue or really decomposed hard rubber or something.

It all scrapes out in klumps that look like some dort of cement or something.

Is the drawing the exact full size of the wood? If so, it will have a 2mm gap at left and right.

I have a piece of plywood, 8mm thick but the veneer is probably not right. Then again, nmaybe it is. It is definitely Australian Hardwood and it wasn;'t cheap.
I will only be able to move forward on that issue once I have time to strip some of the old finish off to see what the wood grain actually looks like.

Kind regards
Bernt

[gramophoneshane]

Yes, it just slots it without being glued. The drawing I sent was the exact size of my grille, so there must be slight variations in cabinet sizes. It might be a good thing you didn't get the Salonola cabinet then! Maybe the lid & motor board might not have fitted. I'm pretty sure yours is an earlier Tonaphone than mine, so it looks like they reduced the size somewhere along the line.
It was definately a Salonola cabinet btw. I found this picture showing the same grille as the ebay cabinet.

[gregbogantz]

I remember seeing that Salonola ad some months ago posted on one of our earlier forums. This has to be one of the earliest record changers. Looks a lot like an Allen-Hough. What nationality was this product - English, Aussie, USA? Does anybody know if any of these have survived?

[richardh]

I remember seeing that Salonola ad some months ago posted on one of our earlier forums. This has to be one of the earliest record changers. Looks a lot like an Allen-Hough. What nationality was this product - English, Aussie, USA? Does anybody know if any of these have survived?

Greg,
what kind of date would that changer come from?

RJ

[berntd]

Hi Shane,

Naw, it would have been fine.
As said, 2mm. That is 79mils. Hardly anything to worry about. your drawing is perfect.


Regards
Bernt

[gregbogantz]

Richard, I'm not sure what vintage this is. The Allen-Hough changer was used on the all-electric Columbia 990 in about 1929 or '30 and in the Zenith radio-phono model 75 in 1930. This Salonola appears to be an acoustic phono with electric motor, so it probably dates to a little earlier. The Victor 10-50 was the first record changer marketed as a consumer item in the USA (other changers were used in commercial and coin-op machines at earlier dates) in 1927. It is argued that some of these commercial models probably were sold to consumers. For example, the Deca-Disc (also an acoustic changer) was available as a coin-op and also without the coin mechanism. But the 10-50 was certainly the first really successful consumer model.

But very little is known about these earliest changers, and few or no examples have survived to study today.
That makes them eminently collectible, in my estimation. But except for you, me, and about six other guys, nobody seems to care about them. I guess that's a good thing afterall because there are so few of these beasties to be had that a large group of collectors would be mostly relegated to drooling over pictures of them.

[gramophoneshane]

Guys,
This changer is THE original changer, invented in 1925 by Eric Waterworth in Tasmania.
Home Recreations Ltd of Sydney (who made Tonaphones & Salonolas) was going to put them into production, and even exhibited one at the Sydney Royal Easter show in 1927, but the company went belly up shortly afterward.
Waterworth then took his invention to England, where he sold the patents to the Symphony Gramophone & Radio Co Ltd.

[gregbogantz]

Thanks for that info, gshane! So, evidently none of this model was actually manufactured. Does anyone know if this basic design was put into production by the Symphony Gramophone Co. or any other English company who may have bought the rights? As I said earlier, this design bears a very strong resemblance to the Allen-Hough which was made in the USA. They may have obtained rights to make this, or they may have simply ripped it off.