Curious "Morse Clarifier" found recently

[FellowCollector]

I purchased a couple of nice early Victors recently and decided to rebuild the Exhibition reproducer on one of them.

I removed the goose neck and set it aside without a second glance. {Who cares about the gooseneck? Right?} My primary focus was, of course, the reproducer.

It's a very nice early round hole Exhibition. The ancient rubber flange was dried and so distorted that one could rock the flange back and forth revealing huge gaps. As most of us who have rebuilt Exhibition reproducers know, the three tiny screws that secure the back cover to the nickel plated front can be a loads of "fun" to remove if any are stuck good and tight from decades of oxidation since the screw slots are tiny, narrow and (UGH!) shallow.

Thankfully, all three screws were removed relatively easily and none of the screw slots were scarred one bit in the process. The rest of the rebuild went smoothly and when I was satisfied with the entire rebuild I installed a new rubber flange.

When I reached for the gooseneck to install the reproducer I noticed something curious about it. It immediately appeared (visually to me) that some sort of flying insect or bees had set up shop inside the gooseneck a very long time ago and they had left behind a rather cute and well made "comb".

I smiled and thought to myself "I'll bet the people that tried to listen to this Victor were wondering 'why does this play so quietly lately?'"

I almost reached for one of my screwdrivers to carefully dig out the 'nest' but then I thought, "Yeah, those nest 'pipes' inside look a little too perfect to be made by bees or whatever. I'd better check this out before I go digging this thing out of there...". So, I picked up George's book on Gadgets and Gimmicks and sure enough I'd found my first Victor gooseneck with a "Morse Clarifier" installed.

Now, of course, I want to listen to this Victor with all of the sound that my record grooves can provide...so now what do I do with this cute early modified Victor gooseneck? Well, I've decided to put it in my collection of phonograph curiosities. I'm sure that in my Victor spare parts boxes I'll have another early original 'normal' gooseneck to use on this Victor.

It's pretty obvious that this Morse Clarifier will do nothing more than muffle the sound. Let's travel back in time to when the Victor dealer sold this to the original owner of this Victor...(Victor Dealer): "Now if you're wanting the BEST sound you can get from your new Victor, why this little device here will make your Victor sound MAGNIFICENT!". Oh boy...

Doug

[Steve Levi]

Awesome find! Thanks for sharing pics. Very interesting. Steve

[gramophone78]

Doug,
Great find. I remember first finding one and thought it was a bug nest... . In fact, they are rolled paper tubes held by a brass band and lacquered together.

[FellowCollector]

Thanks for the nice comments, guys.

Wayne,
Looking at your pictures do you think it's possible to remove my Morse Clarifier from the gooseneck without damaging it? I'm guessing it was pressed in fairly snug by hand over a hundred years ago. Chances are that it'd be damaged on removal pushing from the underside, for example, if I carefully twisted a rag or whatever using a gradual pushing motion through the reproducer end. I sincerely appreciate your showing one that was never installed. The pipes almost look like pipe organ pipes.

[gramophone78]

Thanks for the nice comments, guys.

Wayne,
Looking at your pictures do you think it's possible to remove my Morse Clarifier from the gooseneck without damaging it? I'm guessing it was pressed in fairly snug by hand over a hundred years ago. Chances are that it'd be damaged on removal pushing from the underside, for example, if I carefully twisted a rag or whatever using a gradual pushing motion through the reproducer end. I sincerely appreciate your showing one that was never installed. The pipes almost look like pipe organ pipes.

Doug, your most welcome. The one I show was in fact installed in the U tube of a Victor V. They are fairly sturdy.
I can see the brass band in one of your pics. If you can slide a very small slotted driver in between the band and tube....it should just pop out. I think I used a fine needle nose to pull mine out. You could also try using a stiff, bendable item to press it from the back side. That least that side is flat and should apply even pressure to push it out.
Post pics of it if you get it out please.

[FellowCollector]

Success! Thanks to Wayne's pictures and suggestions on removal of the Morse Clarifier inside my recently purchased Victor's gooseneck tube I can now use the gooseneck that came with the machine.

To remove it I decided first to give the gooseneck end (where the Morse Clarifier was inserted) a few raps on the floor of our deck outside and I noticed the Morse Clarifier had moved a tiny bit out toward the end of the gooseneck (yay!). I sprayed a tiny bit of WD 40 on the newly exposed brass retainer on the device and a few raps later there was just enough room to insert a small screwdriver inside the sound hole to gently push out the remaining Morse Clarifier that was inside. Voila! Without Wayne's pictures and thoughts on how he removed his Morse Clarifier this gooseneck would have simply sat on my shelf. I hope that I'm able to help someone else out like this someday.

Doug

[gramophone78]

Success! Thanks to Wayne's pictures and suggestions on removal of the Morse Clarifier inside my recently purchased Victor's gooseneck tube I can now use the gooseneck that came with the machine.

To remove it I decided first to give the gooseneck end (where the Morse Clarifier was inserted) a few raps on the floor of our deck outside and I noticed the Morse Clarifier had moved a tiny bit out toward the end of the gooseneck (yay!). I sprayed a tiny bit of WD 40 on the newly exposed brass retainer on the device and a few raps later there was just enough room to insert a small screwdriver inside the sound hole to gently push out the remaining Morse Clarifier that was inside. Voila! Without Wayne's pictures and thoughts on how he removed his Morse Clarifier this gooseneck would have simply sat on my shelf. I hope that I'm able to help someone else out like this someday.

Doug

Doug,
I'm so glad you were able to remove it. I think it's cooler to see it out, than to leave it hidden in the tube.
Your brass ring appears to have started to slip off the paper tubes. The retainer ring should be flush with the tubes. You may be able to carefully press it back down while holding the cluster with your fingers..??.

Ironically like you, I was almost about to smash the "bug nest" out when I recalled seeing it in one of George and Tim's book. Thank goodness for these books and others. Every collector (new & old) should have them on hand. After all, the item you save may be your own.. .