Columbia AA Graphophone Serial Number Research

[TinfoilPhono]

Thanks for adding that to our database.

As far as I know, the AA uses the same springs as the Type B "Eagle," so I would expect them to be available from The Phonograph Shop.

[Zwebie]

(I sold this one a while back.)

Graphophone AA
Small Decal
1906 Milan Grand Prize Decal on back
D Reproducer
Serial # 713161
10” Nickel Horn

[TinfoilPhono]

Thanks! That helps narrow the range for when the 1906 award label replaced the previous 1904. So far there are only 2 machines reported with the 1906 Milan award.

[Dulcetto]

Serial 706801
D reproducer
Large decal on front
No decal on back
Came with original 10 x 8 inch aluminium horn as sold new in UK.

Best wishes from England

[TinfoilPhono]

Excellent, thanks!

We seem to be on a roll today, with several new submissions. Anyone else have an AA to add?

[Zenger]

S/N 712826
D reproducer (I assume that's what this is? Please let me know if I'm mistaken.)
Small decal on front (just says "The Graphophone," not "The Columbia Graphophone")
St. Louis Exposition 1904 decal on back
No horn

I found this machine in the wild; I believe it had always been in the family. The nickel plating is in lovely condition -- that's dirt in the picture. I would be interested to know if anyone has deduced a fair estimate of how many AAs total are extant, and how many have small front decals vs. large. I know Hazelcorn believed there were only 1 or 2 of the small decal AAs in existence, but at this point I'm wondering if there are more small decal machines known than large decals. Also, anyone have a good guess on what S/N marks the start of the small decals?

Thanks for doing this!

[TinfoilPhono]

Thanks for that addition to the census.

As to your questions, so far we have 44 numbers recorded, but I'm sure there are many more out there that remain to be documented. Of the 44 documented, only 9 have the small decal (only one of which has "Columbia" on the decal, the highest number recorded).

The point at which the change from large to small is narrowing -- yours is actually the lowest number yet for a small decal. The highest large decal number on file is 712798 so that's a very narrow range of 28 numbers for the changeover. Hopefully we'll get more numbers and can narrow that even further.

I continue to be perplexed by the fact that nearly half the reported numbers fall in a narrow range from 711975 to 713327 -- fewer than 1500 total -- while the other half stretch from 701220 through 709775, nearly 10,000. They are fairly evenly scattered through that range. (Curiously, none are yet reported in the 710000 range.) It's odd that so many late production machines survive as compared to earlier ones.