Featured Phonograph № 22

[Brad]

Make: Columbia
Model: Graphophone B
Serial # 82076
Year(s) Made: 1897 til ~1908
Original Cost: $10 ($12 with case)
Case/Cabinet Size: oak portable 11 ½ x 7
Turntable/Mandrel: Mandrel
Reproducer/Sound-Box: #2
Motor: 2 spring, 3 ball govenor
Horn Dimensions: 10" cone
Reproduction Parts: Just the horn
Current Value: Priceless
Interesting Facts: Was nicknamed the "Eagle" because of the $10 price. Very Popular machine with ~149,000 made. Columbia had to open an new span of serial numbers as they ran out of the original allotment.

Favorite Characteristics: The serial numbers started at 80,000 suggesting that this unit most likely dates to the first year of production - 1897

Though, my favorite characteristic was that it came with a box lot of 35 Blue amberol cylinders which included 2 5000 series and a very clean copy of "let us not forget"

[Aaron]

VERY NICE Brad!

[MordEth]

Brad,

Excellent photos! I particularly liked how clearly you photographed the metal name plate (which can be no mean feat, depending on the lighting) and that you included the photo of the governor in action.

Thanks for sharing this machine with us!

— MordEth

[JohnM]

Thanks Brad! I love Eagles. When I was a new collector, there was a Type B in an antique shop in Louisville that the owner wouldn't sell. How I lusted after that machine! One day I got a call from an elderly man who had two Eagles, both lacking horns, reproducers, and winding keys. He told me that if I could complete one for him, I could have the other. I had a spare reproducer, but had to buy the other parts, IIRC, from Tom Pollard (or perhaps Neumann Miller). That's how I got my first Eagle. It played much slower than my Q, which was my first clue about brown wax records being recorded at various speeds.

Great design by Thomas Hood Macdonald!

John M

[WDC]

It's a real cute machine. Despite its small size it does a great and reliable job, and the cool thing is that you can see everything except for the mainspring in its barrel.

[Kevan]

Nice Columbia B Brad

Have you played it on YouTube yet?

Funny how some of your best 4 min cylinder finds...... come with a 2 min machine.

Kevan

[Brad]

Here is an attempt at YouTube. I probably didn't grab the best cylinder and shot too close to the works which gives a better view of it operating but with more mechanical noise.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwcj7BnV15s[/youtube]