Interesting Cylinder Recorder

[Schmaltz]

For those long speeches that go on forever, the TeleCord cylinder recorder.

This is meant to be a portable unit, and I've only got the part with the mandrels and recording heads (yes, they're both recording heads, no playback unit here). At the moment, that is all I know. I found it at a local garage sale for $2, so it was less than the gas that took me there and back.

If I've guessed right, there is another satchel that would have the amplifier and microphone in it, along with the electronic switcher controls that would have enabled the operator to record on one cylinder and set up the other to start when the other nears its end. As the first cylinder stops, the signal would switch to the second recording head and start the second mandrel revolving. Then the freshly recorded cylinder on the first mandrel could be removed, stored away, and the next blank fitted up. As long as you had a steady supply of blanks, the speech could go on for hours without a word missed.

Anyone here ever seen one of these? I'm just doing research and hit a brick wall. Thanks for any bits of applicable wisdom.

[Amberola 1-A]

They were made by Dictaphone (Columbia). Here is an article on them.

Bill

http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/answertech5.php

[Schmaltz]

Thanks for that link, Bill: the whole thing is interesting reading.

[edisonphonoworks]

I know most phonograph enthusiast, are going, oh, another Dictaphone. I think this is really, neat, but oh well I have a thing for items that record. Does this have a magnetic, or crystal element? If it is magnetic, check the ohms, and if it is above four, then you could hook it to the output of a good tube amp, A tube P.A. amp with XLR connectors, for a RCA 44 microphone, change the feedscrew to 200tpi, or 100 and you have a nice recording unit, you could use two amps and two microphones, sync them up for stereophonic cylinder recording!

[Schmaltz]

I know most phonograph enthusiast, are going, oh, another Dictaphone. I think this is really, neat, but oh well I have a thing for items that record. Does this have a magnetic, or crystal element? If it is magnetic, check the ohms, and if it is above four, then you could hook it to the output of a good tube amp, A tube P.A. amp with XLR connectors, for a RCA 44 microphone, change the feedscrew to 200tpi, or 100 and you have a nice recording unit, you could use two amps and two microphones, sync them up for stereophonic cylinder recording!

That got me intrigued enough to take the ohmmeter and pop open the caps on top of the recording heads. Yep, they're magnetic, but they read around 50 ohms each, so I dare say there would have to be an output transformer between them and the respective amp. Great idea, thanks.

The stereo recording statement made me smile. Kind of a binaural cylindrical recording. Synchronizing them later would be a headache, especially if the playback machines run at slightly different speeds, but recording them would sure be fun.

Changing the feedscrew would probably mean machining new ones from scratch, but since we're talking let's take it to the next step hypothetically: the recording stylus could be changed out for a wider one since the GPI would be less tight, allowing potentially for greater fidelity and volume. Then maybe increasing the speed of the mandrel using different pulleys. Electrically recorded 2-minute cylinders!

[edisonphonoworks]

Yep should work, the cutting stylus though is kind of an in between cutting stylus, and will work for both, Ediphones are 150 and dictaphones 160. I use a Fairchild disc lathe driver, it drives the automatic recorder cutter, with a linkage to the driver.