Re: Edison Bell Class M Concert
Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 8:00 am
Do you think that the Concert part was an upgrade, that may have been done after 1899?
I have seen these pin-type pulleys on later machines (say, post-1900), although earlier examples seem to have cast lugs (see The Talking Machine Compendium, p.88, Fig.3-31). There's a 1904-1905 Balmoral in factory gold plate with these pin-type pulleys on page 108 (Fig. 3-48) of Discovering Antique Phonographs. A British coin-slot version with pin-type pulleys appears on page 81 of A World of Antique Phonographs. Clearly, later Class M/Balmoral type machines had dropped the lugs.Andersun wrote:
George,
From the Class M and Class E Concerts you have seen, were the belt twist pulleys supported on both ends by part of the upper bed-plate casting like the early Class M upper works? Or did Edison supply later style upper bed-plates with the configuration shown by this Class M Concert and the Class M in the U-Tube video that Marcel just pointed out?
Very interesting Marcel....
As for the possibility of an "upgrade" in the case of the machine in question, I suppose an owner could have had his dealer perform such a grafting (but did Edison sell Concert upper works alone?). But without documentation, the result might be regarded by some as an anachronistic hybrid born on a collector's workbench. In either event, it's still a very nice machine.
George P.