Smallest Phonograph?

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Garjen127
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Smallest Phonograph?

Post by Garjen127 »

Does anyone know what the smallest working cylinder/disk phonograph ever made is?
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oceanlinerfanatic
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by oceanlinerfanatic »

I would say this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygjzcsqP8ok

As a actual practical machine for a disc it would be a Bing pigmyphone and for cylinder a Columbia Q or Rectorphone.

Lah Ca
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by Lah Ca »

The Mikiphone might be in the running.

https://youtu.be/fmx-nwetRwI?si=-y6r6ZknjewPiHzR

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Benjamin_L
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by Benjamin_L »

Well… If you want to be really technical, the queen Mary doll house is the smallest, but was a one off.

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Steve
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by Steve »

If we're talking strictly commercially available mass produced machines then the correct answer of course is the Swiss Mikiphone.

I don't know about cylinder machines!
Last edited by Steve on Mon Mar 17, 2025 8:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

Starkton
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by Starkton »

Perhaps not the smallest, but the most interesting miniature model: Edison Military Phonograph. viewtopic.php?t=5754&hilit=Military&start=20

Shown below at the center of the image at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889.
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Babillard
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by Babillard »

Named the Juno phonograph, this small toy was built by the Juno Phonograph Manufacturing Co. in London, based on patent No. 7594 filed on 23 June 1900 by William Phillips Thompson.
The originality of the Juno is due to its horn consisting of a yellow celluloid horn, on the basis of which is fixed a sapphire by means of a small iron clamp. In order to ballast it and place it on its support, a piece of lead was placed in the tip of the horn.
This tiny phonograph (the length of the base of black sheet measures 10 cm), plays interchangeable wax cylinders with a diameter of 56 mm and a width of 24 mm.
The Juno was also sold under the name The Midget, so it could play the identical cylinders of both brands.
Other small cylinder phonographs are described on this page of my site : https://www.phonorama.fr/phonographes-divers-p2.html
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CarlosV
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by CarlosV »

Steve wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 2:35 am The correct answer of course is the Swiss Mikiphone.
The Japanese Micky is a little larger than the Swiss Miki - similar names and different designs - but also quite small.
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OrthoFan
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by OrthoFan »

I don't know if this counts, but I think the smallest all mechanical (manual hand crank) "Edison Phonograph" was the one installed in the Edison Talking Doll --

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way ... nightmares
Screenshot 2025-03-17 070210.jpg

Lah Ca
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Re: Smallest Phonograph?

Post by Lah Ca »

In the CAPS article in the link below, there are a couple of "pocket gramophones" featured which were probably much smaller than a Mikiphone, one described as being "less to carry than a pipe." They seem to have been short-lived novelty items, and it is not known whether any still exist. Advertising may be all that is left.

https://capsnews.org/apn2024-3a.htm
2025-03-22 08.32.17 capsnews.org 775f83963eff.jpg

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