FOUND: Celluloid Edison ICS Tag

[MikeB]

Blain, you are awesome.

George, would Blain's tag work for my machine? The Model C that I am working on is SN# 729391. I'm curious to know if any of the tags on the known ICS machines in my SN# range read "Thomas A Edison, Inc."

Thank you both -
Mike

I have this tag. You are welcome to it if you still need it. I also have the ITS tag.
Regards,
Blain

Note that Blain's generous offer involves a tag marked "Thomas A. Edison Inc." That dates the tag to no earlier than March 1911.

George P.

I have this tag. You are welcome to it if you still need it. I also have the ITS tag.
Regards,
Blain

Note that Blain's generous offer involves a tag marked "Thomas A. Edison Inc." That dates the tag to no earlier than March 1911.

George P.

[MikeB]

Here are a couple of more pictures. Please note that I have it partially disassembled because I am currently working on it. (I successfully got the horrible pot metal bearing out of there - yea for me).

I'll post more pics once it is done.

[phonogfp]

George, would Blain's tag work for my machine? The Model C that I am working on is SN# 729391. I'm curious to know if any of the tags on the known ICS machines in my SN# range read "Thomas A Edison, Inc."

Mike,

Based on your Standard's serial number and dataplate style, it's a National Phonograph Company machine. To match Blain's tag, your machine would need to have a Type 9 data plate, as shown in this article:

https://www.antiquephono.org/edison-sta ... ate-notes/

I should think finding a conventional ICS tag wouldn't be too difficult (but of course I've never tried!).

Best of luck,
George P.

[martinola]

Mike - with that serial number, a "National Phonograph" ICS tag would be the safer bet. Starting with the upper 700,000s there is an intermixing of both types of tags after that point until just before the very end. I’d bet that there was an overstock of the old tags and the new “Inc” tags weren’t ordered until the very last.

By the end of Standard production, machines were being reconfigured (sometimes multiple times) to fill dwindling orders. This screws up the nice linearity of organizing things by serial number. Unsold stock at the very, very end all seemed to be shipped as ICS machines. The ICS proved to be a good way to dispose of otherwise obsolete machines. The machines with the type 9 patent plate seem to only have the “Inc” tags, but the “Inc” tag also shows up with some type 7 and 8 plates as well.

I’ve heard Model T enthusiasts complain “If Ford didn’t build them right, how can we restore them right?” I think the same thing can be said of the Edison Works as well.

Best Regards,
Martin

[MikeB]

Thanks to you all for your kindness and knowledge. This has certainly been educating. I will wait for an appropriate tag for this machine, then.