The Autophone Cylinder Player

[Lah Ca]

One of the members of the CAPS executive brought this interesting machine to my attention, The Autophone.

Autophone was a San Francisco company, but the machines were also manufactured in Vancouver, BC, by The Dominion Autophone Company.

They are like a windup jukebox for Edison cylinders, producing about 45 minutes of play on a single (presumably long) winding.

Someone in CAPS probably/possibly had one because the pictures were found in the CAPS Facebook archive. But it is no longer known who owns the machine.

I would imagine that they were very expensive and, therefore, now rare.

Anyone have one?

https://www.capsnews.org/capp/autophone/autophone.html

[Pete Stratford]

Way back in the early 1980’s I visited a collector by the name of John Boyd who lived in Burnaby B.C. He had a working Autophone. He also had another that needed repair that I believe he sold to Don Meyer who I think is a member of the forum. Mr Boyd passed away in 1986. I do not know who acquired his Autophone

[Lah Ca]

Thanks.

I would love to see one in action. It is just such a delightfully eccentric thing. I am surprised there are no Youtube videos of one.

[JerryVan]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe there is one pictured in one of the excellent "Fabrizio & Paul" publications. If so, I'm sure that the owner would have been noted.

[phonogfp]

There was an Autophone pictured in Discovering Antique Phonographs. It was owned at the time by Jean-Paul Agnard, but has since been sold.

Among the nine pages of Multiphone-Autophone images in A World of Antique Phonographs, this one shows another version of the home Autophone. There were even disc models.

It was an interesting company! (Click twice on the images to enlarge and sharpen.)

George P.

[Pete Stratford]

I guess old age is setting in. I had completely forgotten that my friend and fellow collector Russ Ridley from Victoria BC has a complete and working Autophone. It is currently in storage so unable to get better pictures

[GeorgeDixon]

My father had one.
The wheels on some versions, if not all (not sure), were made of pot metal and thus, subject to breaking, rendering the machine inoperable.
A collector in Nevada years ago made a deal with my father that if he were to lend him his wheel he would make two exact copies out of aluminum - his was broken.
I have often wondered where the other aluminum wheel ended up. If anyone comes across an Autophone with an aluminum wheel thats the back story.

[fran604g]

Fascinating machines!

[Pete Stratford]

It would seem that not all of these machines came with roller casters. If you look close at the first machine pictured at the beginning of this thread you will see that it does not have roller casters. It has flat casters that are are made up of metal and glass. The machine my friend has which is all original also has these flat casters. Here is a picture.