The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

May I possibly get the date of one more Edison Home suitcase model?

It's serial number H 19789.

Thank you!
Mike

Edison Home No.19789 left the factory in November 1899.

George P.

For twenty five years I owned serial number H 3229. Sold it maybe 13 or 14 years ago. Would be interesting to know what year it left the factory and where it is today!

I can help with part of your question. Home No.3229 left the factory in January 1898. As for for where it is today, all I can tell you is it's not in my house!

George P.

Thanks George. This certainly shows the slow ramp up for the Edison Home. I thought they were introduced in 1896. That would indicate only 3000 in the first two years and nearly 17,000 in the following year.

Did your phonograph have the notch that the reproducer lift lever fit into ?? I have always wondered when the skeleton frames and the notched bed plates ended. I have never seen a skeleton bed plate but I have seen pictures. It seems Edison could have saved money on those castings. Tom

Then 19789 is now my earliest machine. Thanks for the help!

I don't remember those details. I don't remember the bedplate looking that much different.

If you're a member of the APS, go to the web site [www.antiquephono.org.] and go to "Articles," "Advanced." Then go to the September 2006 issue of The Sound Box. There's an article there on the "suitcase" Homes, with in-depth discussions of the various characteristics that appeared and disappeared on the earliest Homes.

George P.

Thanks for the information . It is a good article Tom