Dream (almost) Came True

[USlakeside]

I was just walking home from the subway and BAM! I saw this, sadly its that radio not a real edison. So close to having my dream of a phonograph found in the trash come true!

[Wolfe]

Interesting.

So what is it? A radio installed in a hollowed out cylinder phono cabinet?

[David Spanovich]

Go back and get it. I've seen a few sell for a couple hundred bucks on Ebay.

I think those were made around the mid-to-late 1980s.


There's one for sale now, though no takers so far -- http://www.ebay.com/itm/THOMAS-RADIO-FM ... 5ae3d2c8e6

Thomas Phonograph--3.JPG (40.19 KiB) Viewed 2618 times

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Thomas Phonograph--1.JPG (37.96 KiB) Viewed 2618 times

They also produced one that looked like a Victor Talking Machine...sort of:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Phonograph-Thom ... 4cfc4ec6d7

DS

[USlakeside]

Of course its gone... I did take the horn because it was metal while the other parts were plastic. I had no idea they were worth anything. Possibly the super of my building grabbed it, can ask. The horn is very convincing.

[squeeker7]

I received one of these for Christmas about 10 years ago..

[Stephen_Madara]

Santa called and said he left it out front of your place because you don't have a chimney

[Wolfe]

Of course its gone... I did take the horn because it was metal while the other parts were plastic. I had no idea they were worth anything. Possibly the super of my building grabbed it, can ask. The horn is very convincing.

Plastic. So I guess that would rule out using some of it as a modern electrical cylinder transport.

[WDC]

Some 15+ years ago I saw them for sale at warehouse for approx. $160.

But be glad you did not buy this. Apparently, it was missing the front door. These turn up quite frequently here in Europe and the highest price I can recall was approx. 50 Euros.

I had one myself a few years ago and was deeply disappointed about the outstanding poor quality of the cassette player and radio. This was a total disillusion. It was basically a Crapo-Repro-Graph. The most annoying thing is the cylinder, that intentionally was designed not to fit completely on the mandrel. You rarely see that with 2m black wax at all.

The topworks assembly is all plastic and slightly smaller than an original machine and, of course, does not work at all. Only the cylinder on the mandrel can be turned. The crank (on the wrong side) is also plastic and can be turned too - whit no transmission, of course.

Just out of curiosity I once gave it a try and held an Edison reproducer over this plastic cylinder and turned it by hand. Of course, there's nothing on it, but now I now for sure.
The printed title (not on the beveled edge but beside the grooves) is "You'll never get to Heaven", somthing that was never recorded on a 2-minute Edison. The closed I could find would be Blue Amberol 4901 with "You'll never get to Heaven with those Eyes" by the Atlantic Dance Orch from 1924...

The only reason why some of these do still sell is the fact, that the 14" horn is a decent repro that fits onto a real Edison. And that is the only value I'd put on these nowadays.

Daklin was one of the manufacturers of these. They still have products of this style available, but not this one anymore.

[VintageTechnologies]

I once knew an old-time collector that found an original Berliner "trademark" on the curb in Detroit, 40 or 50 years ago. Even then, it must have seemed that any idiot would recognize that such a well-known icon must have some value - not that homeowner. My friend was driving along on trash day and spotted it atop a pile of trash. The horn was missing, so he knocked on the door and asked if the horn might still be in the basement. Yep, it was! I couldn't believe how nice the condition was.

[mrphonograph]

they where made by the spirit of st louis company and they had several models including a extern horn disc machine this cylinder type first came out as a cassette player later models had a radio cd combination in them

if you find a bust one you can always use the horn you just need to replace the end piece with one that fits a actual edison i got many repro witch hat horns this way here in holland these retro things go cheaper than an actual replica edison witch hat

greetings
tino