Steve Farmer Technical Archives

[phonogfp]

For those of you who knew - or knew of - Steve Farmer, his passing last year was a real loss to the phonograph collecting community. Steve could tackle the most daunting restorations, on the most daunting machines, and turn a pile of rusty parts and rotten/missing wood into a showpiece. Many of us are proud to have machines in our collections which benefited from Steve's touch.

Steve's widow found a substantial number of photos, technical drawings, and other records of Steve's various restorations over the years, and very kindly donated them to the Antique Phonograph Society. There are 37 separate files showing information on things as diverse as making a Bell-Tainter mandrel, a Rosenfield coin-op, a Victor Auxetophone, a rigid-arm Royal, a Victor V, a couple of different Victor VIs - one with matching record cabinet, a Circassian VTLA, a VV-XX, 4 Edison Eclipse coin-ops, a Regina Hexaphone, a tabletop Automatic Reginaphone, a Circassian Edison Disc Phonograph, Edison Excelsior and H coin-ops, an Edison Idelia, a Kinetoscope, an Opera, a mahogany Triumph and Standard, a Multiphone, a pair of Cailophones, a wiring diagram for the Class M, measurements for fabricating a BC Graphophone friction wheel,a BD Disc Graphophone, a BS Graphophone, an Edison A-450, an Ajax, an Amberola 1A in Circassian, drawings for the Edison Bijou, and others.

These digital files can be very helpful for those of us working on these or similar machines, as well as woodworking. APS members can access these files on the web site:

https://www.antiquephono.org/

Click on "Articles" then "Technical" on the drop-down.

If you cannot access these, or other files in the APS online archive, it probably means you haven't yet renewed for 2019. Now's the time!

https://www.antiquephono.org/join-us-home/

Thanks go out to Judy Farmer for her generosity, Shawn O'Rourke for his efforts before and during the transfer, and to Rod Pickett for uploading all the material to the APS web site.

George P.

[melvind]

Wow, what a wonderful archive! Judy Farmer is such a nice lady and her generous offer of documents and photos keeps Steve’s legacy alive helping us for generations to come. It was really fun to see his shop full of machines and tools when the OTAPS group had the chance to visit the Farmer’s home a few years ago. Steve was a real talent and perfectionist. This made my day.

[fran604g]

Thank you to Mrs. Farmer, the APS, and to George for alerting us to this wonderful body of work - a lasting tribute to Mr. Farmer. Though I had no personal interaction with the man, I can only wish I had, and through the APS we can all "know" the man in some small way through his diligent work.

Best,
Fran

P.S.: Seriously folks, if you haven't joined the APS, you should, and if you're already a member and haven't renewed your dues yet for 2019, please do now. It's a small price for an amazing amount of information...information you won't find anywhere else, no matter how many Google searches or Facebook encounters!

[vansteem78]

I looked briefly and holy moly and omg as they say. Wow such magic he made. So glad my dues are paid up! Neil