Name that reproducer!

[Valecnik]

These turn up from time to time but are by no means common. Who can identify this reproducer?

[Valecnik]

Reproducer number two might even be slightly more difficult to identify. Any guesses?

Feel free to post pics of your own unusual reproducer.

[gsphonos]

The first one looks like a US Phonograph reproducer--you can find the machines, but the reproducer is usually missing, useless, or swollen tight or chipped away by the scourge of reproducers--pot metal! Someone should reproduce those! The second looks like the reproducer off of a Wizard phono, if memory serves me. I have only seen one playing one time. The mandrel moves and the reproducer is fixed in place.

Do I win???

Mike Sorter

[Valecnik]

Excellent! You win!

[Lenoirstreetguy]

That's the first time I've ever seen a good photo of the business end of either reproducer. I always wondered what was the under the hood.

[alang]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. After looking at the pictures for quite a while I am still not sure I understand how they work.

Is the US one a reproducer and recorder combination? If not, why two reproducers?

How does the wizard work? If this is the sapphire on top, does it somehow flap down on the cylinder?

Thanks for any explanation.
Andreas

[VintageTechnologies]

Andreas, the US Phonograph has two reproducers sitting side by side under a shroud; one plays 2M records and the other plays 4M records. Turning a lever or knob on top of the shroud shifts either reproducer into position. It seems like a terrible waste compared to the simplicty of an Edison "K" or "O" reproducer. I suspect the US Phonograph company was trying to avoid patent lawsuits from Edison by doing it that way. However, Edison sued them for some kind of violation anyway.

The Wizard reproducer works in principle the same as an Edison "C" or a Columbia Lyric reproducer, in that the floating stylus bar is linked to a diaphragm. Like the Columbia, the stylus pressure is regulated by a spring instead of a weight like the Edison. The Wizard I heard sounded as good as any other 2M cylinder phonograph.

[alang]

Thank you very much for explaining, I would have never thought that they would install two full reproducers to cover 2 and 4 minutes.

So on the Wizard, if the stylus bar is in the front connected to the linkage and pushed via spring onto the cylinder surface, how do you change cylinders when the whole reproducer body seems to be part of the horn mount and does not seem to move? Do you pull the stylus bar back somehow with the lever on top?

Thanks again
Andreas

[Valecnik]

Phonocookie, who own's the machine could explain it better if he's watching but, very simply put, that shaft is threaded and the whole shaft and mandrel are driven across the mounting it sit's on by the spring. The shaft just lays on top of the threaded mount, held on only by gravity. To change records you just pick up the shaft and slide the record on or off the mandrel.

Regardding the US machine, not only does it have two separate reproducers, but not really visible is that the two and four minute parts of the reproducer are driven by two totally separate feeds crews, right next to each other, possibly to get around an Edison patent for gears changing the speed of one shaft?

[alang]

Thanks Bruce, that makes sense now. Amazing how many different working solutions were invented. Something new to learn in this hobby every day.
Andreas