Presentation and question

[carmelo letosa]

Hello to all, I have not managed to enter the paragraph of presentations so I ask for excuses you. I am a fan of the phonographs, of Saragossa (Spain), and my question is the following one: I have a motive Edison springs Bettini with a device for his use as gramophone, and I would like to know if it could come this way from the workshops Edison or they did it here in Spain and if you can say to me where I can obtain needles it scratches for the breeding animals Bettini. Regards and graces. I send my photographies.

[VintageTechnologies]

That is an amazing grammophone conversion. I feel very sure that the conversion was done in Spain, and not by the Edison company.

[alang]

I agree, this is fascinating. I think the tone arm should probably be turned around so that the reproducer or needle head faces to the right side. The needle should sit in a 60 degree angle on the record, this will reduce the scratching. You can buy new needles on eBay. A needle should be changed after every record and only be used once, that also reduces scratching.
Thanks for sharing your pictures.
Andreas

[gramophoneshane]

What an amazing (and possibly now unique) conversion. Never having seen anything like this before, it's extremely unlikely the Edison factory had anything to do with it's design & manufacture, otherwise you'd expect to see more surviving examples today.
But who made it & where was it made?? I guess we may never know unless some sort of original advertising or patent information comes to light.
It appears to have been professionally manufactured & finished, rather than something some machinist put together in his workshop, but did they go into production or could this be a one-off prototype
I sure hope George spots this, because if anyone knows anything about this, it'll be George

It certainly makes you wonder what other phonographical achievements of the past are lurking in collections around the world, yet to be seen by mainstream collectors.
Thank you so much Carmelo, for sharing this truly magnificent machine with us.

[edisonphonoworks]

That is an awesome setup! It looks though also like you need stili for the recorder and reproducer as well, Anyone make them? All the good new cupped center ones, are all sold out now. Sometime I might make a run of two and four minute cutters again.

[gramophoneshane]

Anyone make them?

I've never heard of them being reproduced, but I think Phonogalerie in France would be my first port of enquiry.


http://www.phonogalerie.com/lang-francais/index.php


Actually, I wonder if the whole gramophone conversion could have been made by Bettini, & if perhaps the last section of the gramophone tonearm could be replaced by a telescopic section for use with the Bettini cylinder reproducer?

[JohnM]

Amazing! I wonder what the diameter of the record nut is?

[Valecnik]

This should be moved to the machines section to make sure everybody sees it. This is really an amazing machine!

Carmelo,

The tone arm back bracket and elbow look like they've been taken from/ adapted from Pathéphone parts of 1906 or so. Some ingenious post sale engineering here for sure. The horn looks like, might be HMV as is the reproducer.

Does the disc record turn counter clockwise?

I'd love to know the history behind this one...

Thanks much for posting!

[phonogfp]

I agree with some earlier posts that the conversion to disc player was surely done in Europe rather than the Edison factory. However, the work appears to have been performed professionally and over a century ago. A very interesting machine indeed!

This Edison Spring Motor is an early one (late 1897-early 1898) and employs a Class M upper works and an early United States Phonograph Company spring motor as seen in the spoked gears.

Wonderful Phonograph!

George P.

[carmelo letosa]

Thanks to all for your answers, I bought it in Madrid two years ago and always it had belonged to the same family.
Do you know where I can find needles for breeding Bettini?