Magnaphone / Magnophone

[chunnybh]

There has always been a bit of confusion between the EMG Magnaphone and the Magnophone. The only time I have seen the term Magnophone is in the “Thank you Brighton” advert on page 10 of “The EMG Story”. I assumed it was a misprint or Ginn had slipped up.
It also mentions in Franks James’ book that Lewis Young of the National Gramophone Company had already registered the name Magnophone, hence the renaming of Magnaphone to EMG.
A recent, random internet search lead me to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, who have been digitising their collection. Here is their H. A. Gaydon’s Magnaphone.
https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/ob ... YwJGwwJGgw

They don’t seen to have any more info on the gramophone other than what is on line. Apparently the label “1916 H. Gaydon’s ‘Magnaphone’” was on it when donated.
It does look like a very hi-end gramophone with a spring mechanism to reduce the soundbox weight.
It looks like it has been re-motored.

Now, is this the Magnaphone that was registered by Lewis Young? Or is there still a Magnophone out there?

I know H.A. Gaydon 1874 – 1944 was a serious inventor. Several unusual soundboxes and the compressed air “Gaydon Stentorphone” There was a forum discussion here, but those pics have disappeared.
viewtopic.php?t=29027

Here is a page on his Stentorphone.
http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMM ... ph.htm#ste

I’m thinking, if Gaydon was making such sophisticated air-compressor gramophones in 1912, why was he building a simple one in 1916? There apparently was a feature on it in Sound Wave Jan 1916. Does anyone have a copy?

[chunnybh]

Found the ad from 1919. Lewis Young seems to have been quite a force in the early gramophone world. "Established in the industry in 1886". Prolific articles by Young in Sound Wave, even in the first issue of Dec 1906. The name Magnophone seems to have been dropped by 1920 when the the ad's for Young, appear as "Reflectorphone". So the 1916 Magnaphone must have been a name also used by Gaydon.

[epigramophone]

"Doorless and Hornless" says the ad, so did the sound emanated from the bottom?
If so, with the machine sitting on a table, the sound quality would have been seriously muted.