Henry Seymour Diaphragm

[phonohound]

I have a Henry Seymour Diaphragm and arm,which appears to be for an Edison Gem. Does anyone know when this was made and what model Gem this attachment would be appropriate? Also, the original diaphragm is made of celluloid and is now hard as a rock, therefore, the reproducer won't work. Would you change out the diaphragm (if so, what material) or would you leave it alone and keep it all original?

I found information on Seymour's work with discs and gramophones, but not so much with cylinder phonographs.

Any information would be helpful. Below are some photos of the reproducer and arm.

Thanks

Scott

http://webpages.charter.net/phonographs ... phragm.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/phonographs ... hragm2.jpg

[Jerry B.]

I can't help with your questions but wanted to thank you for the photos. It's fun to see what must be a very rare accessory. Jerry

[Uncle Vanya]

These cylinder reproducers (and the entire process of cylinder recording, reproduction, and duplication) are covered in depth in Mr. Seymour's excellent book "The Reproduction of Sound". These reproducers were made with diaphragms of French Glass, Celluloid, and Plumbago (graphite). A poster over on another forum recently acquired one of these unites with a shattered plumbago diaphragm. The plumbago units were common European telephone transmitter diaphragms of the period, and may be found with relative ease.

This is a rather rare unit, though, and I would hesitate to risk damage to it. These reproducers are similar to Pathé units of the period, and can perform quite well when properly adjusted, certainly better than an early Edison Gem reproducer.

[phonohound]

Thanks Jerry and Uncle Vanya. I wanted to bid on the one that sold on ebay, but it got pretty pricey. I will leave mine alone since it is 100% complete. I'm still wondering when it was made, which would help me in figuring out which model Gem it should be paired with.

I love oddball reproducers and attachments.

[dd2u]

Maybe this thread should be in the UK forum?