Edison Shaver

[scooter]

I saw this interesting piece on Craigslist, Cedar Rapids. I guess if you've got a lot of cylinders to shave, this will do it. Not sure if it's electric or wind-up. I've never seen one though.

Dictaphone Model 7 Type S Shaving Machine - $50 (Springville)

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Reply to: [email protected] [?]
Date: 2009-02-05, 10:54AM CST



For sale is an antique piece of equipment from the Edison days of graphophone and cylinder recordings. It is a Dictaphone Shaving Machine from the Dictaphone corporation and is a Model 7 Type S, serial number 27224. It appears to be complete and in working condition but is not guaranteed. Manufactured around 1925. In the days when transcribing machines produced wax cylinder recordings, this machine was used to shave the cylinders smooth so they could be used again. In the picture that is not rust or corrosion on the machine, it is wax shavings. There is even some wax shavings in the collector drawer.

$50 firm, 319 854-6262.

[MordEth]

Scooter,

It seems to be electric (take a look at the toggle switch below)—I did a Google search and found another similar machine with these pictures:

Yours is a better deal—they want $150 for the one I found.

— MordEth

[coyote]

Thanks for the posts. I think I posted something along these lines on the last incarnation of the board. I have a few (mostly non-functional) electric Ediphone shavers. I'm not sure how many of you actually play around with recording your own cylinders, but my favorite is a gray/green Ediphone shaver supposedly salvaged from a Philadelphia shipyard, if I remember the seller's description correctly. The electric Ediphone shavers shave a standard brown wax cylinder much better than a Triumph with full spring power and good cutter. Not only can you make a few deeper shaves rather than a ton of thin ones, the finished product is almost silent when played back without recording on it. You don't get swarf all over your machine, either. And yes, I have had one or two original brown wax blanks explode while shaving. Not only a mess, but a sad sense of loss of something original. These were very moldy dictation/shorthand practice cylinders purchased from eBay. I used modern equipment to record what could be discerned from even the moldiest of them before shaving. Maybe I should post this in another thread, and maybe it's just me, but somehow I seem to get better results from original brown wax blanks than Shawn Borri's or Paul Morris' blanks, mainly in volume.

[edisonphonoworks]

I have put over 10,000 hours into making wax blanks. The blanks I made previous to 2004 are not near the quality of those post 2004, the early ones were sans 2 components, and I had put too much aluminum hydroxide in the early blanks, making them extreamly hard. The ones prior to 2004 are more like Columbia Melzer blanks,The Edison papers project had not gone online, and I went through a process similar to Jonas Aylsworth, in almost the same order, I later found out, reading his notebooks the evolution of cylinders. The blanks I make now, are made with the 1896 Aylsworth formula, and use ceresine as the tempering agent and have sal soda reacted with stearic in addition to aluminum stearate. I have read over 4,000 pages on blank production from both companies and these production notes are for brown wax, black wax, and Ediphone blanks, as well as Columbia brown and black wax. 2 problems exsist today, the ceresine today is synthetic, and the stearic is no longer beef fat, but derived from refined palm stearin, this product is better than original, but does not brown the same. I a few months ago I finished a project for Thomas Edison Historical Park in West Orange making replica cylinders of the 1888 non metallic soap blanks. The originals are stored in vaults, and are not to be played again, or exposed to light, so I made replica ones.

[edisonrestorer64]

I have this same exact one but I need the wiring Pictures of the under side any help at all would be greatly appreciated Thank you