Unusual Weekend Find

[phonogfp]

Thanks guys.

After the shellac cures for a few days, I'll touch it lightly with 0000 steel wool to cut the gloss slightly.

Again - I wouldn't have posted this except for the freak occurrence of finding such a rare machine complete. I still need a traveling arm, sound box and horn for another Zono...!

George P.

[New Owner]

What surprises me is that the leather elbow is still intact, and even in the before picture, it looks supple and tight. As a guy who's rather new to phonographs, I'm curious as to why leather was used for the elbow. Granted, my only experience with leather is the kind you find on clothes and car seats, but leather seems a bit flimsy. I would've expected metal, wood, or even paper-mache to be used in elbows.

Where'd you find this machine anyway?

[phonogfp]

Leather was used for most disc talking machine elbows prior to around 1903. The leather is much thicker than what you'd find in clothing or upholstery - probably about ⅛" thick. The inside of these elbows is the rough side so it grips the horn (it's glued to the horn) and sound box reasonably well - although metal elbows are far more secure. Berliner, Victor, Columbia, and Zonophone equipped their first disc machines with leather elbows.

This Zonophone popped up about 40 miles from me. At first I didn't know the fellow wanted to sell it, but once he made his wishes known, I did my best to accommodate him. He also had a pretty good idea of its value...

George P.

[Starkton]

The horn, like everything else, looks very nice now. Congratulations!

[1923VictorFan]

That really is a beautiful machine and a great story about how you found it! I know it gives the rest of us a little glimmer of hope that we too may have such a cool thing fall into our laps.

I wonder (Erich gets philosophical) if anyone here thinks the days of really great attic & basement finds may be nearing an end or at it"s high point as "that" generation of aging Americans pass away? As they pass away their homes are inherited and picked apart by their surviving relatives. How many more unexplored attics can there be?

Does anyone have their own ideas or experiences about finding such treasures? I think that the next best source of phonograph discoveries will be rural, small town America where homes & farms have been handed down from generation to generation.

I'm just curious.