FBM -- (Japanese?) Nitto Portable -- Vernon, BC

[Lah Ca]

I believe this is a Japanese Nitto portable, going for $50 CDN. The CDN dollar is now somewhere around $0.71 US.

It is located in Vernon, BC.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BixnVBbqy/

nitto.jpg (52.01 KiB) Viewed 412 times

[epigramophone]

Unfortunately the seller has not posted a picture of the inside of the lid. The logo is obscured by the records, but the machine certainly looks like the Nitto portables pictured on line. The record storage clip is of pre-EMI Columbia design. The Garrard turntable and speed control are also typical Columbia fitments, so the Nitto may have been a Columbia client machine.

On the subject of Canadian Dollars, this Edison Opera/Concert has an unbelievably low pre-sale estimate of CDN500/700!

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auct ... 8967abf038

[Lah Ca]

Unfortunately the seller has not posted a picture of the inside of the lid. The logo is obscured by the records, but the machine certainly looks like the Nitto portables pictured on line. The record storage clip is of pre-EMI Columbia design. The Garrard turntable and speed control are also typical Columbia fitments, so the Nitto may have been a Columbia client machine.

On the subject of Canadian Dollars, this Edison Opera/Concert has an unbelievably low pre-sale estimate of CDN500/700!

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auct ... 8967abf038

Thanks. Most Japanese portable machines that I have seen are rebadged or licensed Victor or Columbia machines.

The Edison machine is in Toronto, some 4377 km by car from the west coast where I am. And cylinder machines, as intriguing as they are, offer up a rabbit hole that I currently avoid most strenuously.

[Steve]

And cylinder machines, as intriguing as they are, offer up a rabbit hole that I currently avoid most strenuously.

With probably close to 300 gramophone purchases, I've never actually bought a cylinder machine in over 34 years! Records are plentiful, easier to store and very cheap and generally play much better than cylinders, which are none of these.

[epigramophone]

Look at my original post above. I did not write this. Lah Ca has mistakenly attributed it to me.
I have worked my way up the cylinder machine hierarchy from an Edison Amberola 30 to an Opera.
A directly recorded Blue Amberol (i.e.1915 or earlier) played on an Opera is considered by many to have given the best sound reproduction, on cylinder or disc, then available.
A smooth celluloid surface played with a diamond stylus through an airtight acoustic system, and linear tracking with the reproducer remaining stationary while the cylinder moves on it's traversing mandrel. State of the art in 1912.

[Steve]

And cylinder machines, as intriguing as they are, offer up a rabbit hole that I currently avoid most strenuously.

With probably close to 300 gramophone purchases, I've never actually bought a cylinder machine in over 34 years! Records are plentiful, easier to store and very cheap and generally play much better than cylinders, which are none of these.

[Steve]

Look at my original post above. I did not write this. Lah Ca has mistakenly attributed it to me.
I have worked my way up the cylinder machine hierarchy from an Edison Amberola 30 to an Opera.
A directly recorded Blue Amberol (i.e.1915 or earlier) played on an Opera is considered by many to have given the best sound reproduction, on cylinder or disc, then available.
A smooth celluloid surface played with a diamond stylus through an airtight acoustic system, and linear tracking with the reproducer remaining stationary while the cylinder moves on it's traversing mandrel. State of the art in 1912.

Maybe, but I cannot believe it can compete on any level of sound reproduction with any of my Pathé disc machines from the same period: Modele E, Concert Modele A or indeed the "Aida".

PS - you did write what is in quotes above this time!

[Lah Ca]

Look at my original post above. I did not write this. Lah Ca has mistakenly attributed it to me.

Yes, you did not write it.

No, I did not mistakenly attribute it to you.

Someone has botched the editing of a quoting of my post, which accurately quoted your OP.

The result is that part of my post is erroneously reported as yours.

[Viva-Toenail]

By my research, Nitto was an entirely Japanese brand. While it may appear to be a Columbia client machine, it had no affiliation with either Nitchiku aka Nipponophone aka Nippon Columbia. Nithiku had ties to both Columbia Graphophones (US and UK) with the latter having the most direct impact when Ltd (UK) acquired a dominant share of Nipponophone in 1929. From then on, Columbia Japan adopted all of British Columbia's design features, such as the lid record storage inverse "V," the No.9 sound box, the 15a (renamed the 15 for the Asian market), the Number 8 (reverse gendered and renamed as the No 16) and other Viva-tonal Grafonola trademark and patented designs. From its (then) US sibling, it brought in a few of the larger machines including the Kolster-Columbia phonograph-radios, but as it did with the British designs, Nippon Columbia soon began to develop its own unique models.

By the mid 30s, soon before EMI severed ties, Nippon Columbia had attained such prominence in Japan and the markets beyond S.E. Asian and Australia (to the point their machines were exported to Europe and competed directly against EMI) that the inevitable "clones" began to appear.

The Asian market had then, as it still has in a few places now, a looser/more cavalier approach to "intellectual property." This is why many Japanese gramophones of various names and quality found today bear eerily similar (i.e., directly copied) components a la both Nippon Columbia and JVC (The Victor Co. of Japan) but with different branding and other miscellaneous details entirely. While Nippon Columbia had it's economy line of "Eagle" machines* (a name leftover from Nitchiku's early affiliation with Columbia US akin to Columbia Graphohone Ltd's "Academy" in the UK in the 30s, "Regal" prior to that, and "Harmony" in the USA), Nitto was not one of these bottom shelf lines and did not use Nippon Columbia manufactured parts. Nitto unashamedly took great "inspiration" from Nippon Columbia's (and by extension, the western Columba's) IP and directly competed against the machines they "emulated." As seen by many via the machines brought home to the west post WW2 and during the years of "Occupied Japan" and Korea, the clone machines market was a prolific one, with a few of these companies contracting as OEM for a few minor American (mostly West Coast) "off brands." From what I've observed, the clone manufacturers survived well into the 50s and some into the 60s, especially as aftermarket parts suppliers for the markets in Africa, S. Asia, etc.

Back to years of lurking...

Arvin

*a few of which made it to Europe pre and during WW2 in such countries as Switzerland

[Lah Ca]

By my research, Nitto was an entirely Japanese brand. While it may appear to be a Columbia client machine, it had no affiliation with either Nitchiku aka Nipponophone aka Nippon Columbia. Nithiku had ties to both Columbia Graphophones (US and UK) with the latter having the most direct impact when Ltd (UK) acquired a dominant share of Nipponophone in 1929. From then on, Columbia Japan adopted all of British Columbia's design features, such as the lid record storage inverse "V," the No.9 sound box, the 15a (renamed the 15 for the Asian market), the Number 8 (reverse gendered and renamed as the No 16) and other Viva-tonal Grafonola trademark and patented designs. From its (then) US sibling, it brought in a few of the larger machines including the Kolster-Columbia phonograph-radios, but as it did with the British designs, Nippon Columbia soon began to develop its own unique models.

By the mid 30s, soon before EMI severed ties, Nippon Columbia had attained such prominence in Japan and the markets beyond S.E. Asian and Australia (to the point their machines were exported to Europe and competed directly against EMI) that the inevitable "clones" began to appear.

The Asian market had then, as it still has in a few places now, a looser/more cavalier approach to "intellectual property." This is why many Japanese gramophones of various names and quality found today bear eerily similar (i.e., directly copied) components a la both Nippon Columbia and JVC (The Victor Co. of Japan) but with different branding and other miscellaneous details entirely. While Nippon Columbia had it's economy line of "Eagle" machines* (a name leftover from Nitchiku's early affiliation with Columbia US akin to Columbia Graphohone Ltd's "Academy" in the UK in the 30s, "Regal" prior to that, and "Harmony" in the USA), Nitto was not one of these bottom shelf lines and did not use Nippon Columbia manufactured parts. Nitto unashamedly took great "inspiration" from Nippon Columbia's (and by extension, the western Columba's) IP and directly competed against the machines they "emulated." As seen by many via the machines brought home to the west post WW2 and during the years of "Occupied Japan" and Korea, the clone machines market was a prolific one, with a few of these companies contracting as OEM for a few minor American (mostly West Coast) "off brands." From what I've observed, the clone manufacturers survived well into the 50s and some into the 60s, especially as aftermarket parts suppliers for the markets in Africa, S. Asia, etc.

Back to years of lurking...

Arvin

*a few of which made it to Europe pre and during WW2 in such countries as Switzerland

Cool. Thank you for such an interesting and detailed reply.