Featured Phonograph № 80 - Edison B-80 (belt driven)

[Andersun]

Very cool setup! What is the doohickey to the left of the reproducer holder in the last pic? Is it part of the horn assembly? Thanks for posting!

[phonophan79]

I had to remove the grill to take a look myself... it's just a light spring/bar mechanism keeping the horn from swinging freely but allowing it to move with the tonearm. The grey along the bottom is where it has been traveling back and forth.

[VintageTechnologies]

Good Question Syncopeter, Is the arm driven across the record or pulled along by the grooves?

Victor held a patent that described the grooves leading the tone arm across the record which is why Edison needed to use the motor and gearing to drive the tone arm to avoid infringement.

The Edison Diamond Disc phonograph was relatively complicated and expensive to produce compared to a Victrola and was designed to skirt around patents and lawyers. To avoid Victor's tapered tonearm patent, the DD had no tonearm per se, just a reproducer coupled directly to the horn which swiveled.

[Lenoirstreetguy]

They had trouble with this machine. It was inclined to be fussy. The Edison Phonograph Monthly gives a long diagnostic so that the dealers could rectify the problems, most of which involved the speed regulation and the fact that turntable would slow down before the record was finished. Since most of the problems stemmed from misalignment of the turntable due to the cabinet warping, you can see that the cast bedplate of the more expensive machines would make that problem vanish like the snows of spring. That said, I think the cabinet is more attractive than the later table models.
Jim

[syncopeter]

It is beautiful though and well worth preserving, especially in this, completely original state.

[Valecnik]

You can see why they had problems with it.
- belt drive
- warping cabinets
- probably worst of all that visibly underpowered single spring motor expected to power all that machinery...

Still a beautiful example well worth preserving as others have noted

[coyote]

Here are some photos I took two years ago when I picked up a B80 with matching cabinet for a fellow collector. This one had a different "matching cabinet," and I wonder if the interiors are similar. This one was S/N 60XX, and it's interesting to note that the mainspring seems to be flush with the case, instead of offset. From the photos, it appears that the case is "cut out" to fit the bottom of the casting where the governor is (next to last photo).

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[brianu]

I was debating whether to post a couple shots of that machine you helped me acquire a few years ago... in the first photo for some reason the record cabinet's color seems much brighter and lighter than that of the machine itself, but they actually both match pretty perfectly. if it would be any help, I can post some photos of that B-80 set-up as well. when I saw the cabinet on the machine in this thread, I too got curious about whether different matching cabinet styles were available for this model (as mine has straight legs, the geometric frieze along the door to match the machine's grill, and record slats/dividers in the cabinet - I'd bet the other record cabinet has shelves, like another similar one I've seen). so far as performance, mine runs pretty well, I've only had the belt slip minimally on occasion when the turntable is stopped and the spring is fully wound - the tension can at those times just be too much).

[coyote]

Thanks for the opportunity to have a close-up inspection, Brian! Built-in flash photography is terrible for capturing accurate colors in finished wood, but I didn't have decent lighting in my basement! The coloring of the wood did match very well.

It's interesting to note the changes this (and other) models went through. Apparently at some point the B-80 horn was transitioned to black-with-grille-cloth from wood-grain painted.