The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

There! I finally scanned the article and sent it off. It appears in the July 1987 issue of the New Amberola Graphic. Number 61. I was interested to see that this issue has a lead article by me concerning the introduction of electrical recording in Canada. I was asked to present the research at the ARSC conference the next year. That was when I was young, stressed and impecunious and yet seemed to accomplish way more real research than I do now.

I am fascinated by the reports of all the Edisonics. Seems they sold better than we thought...and with a reproducer with a diaphragm that isn't dried out and deformed, they certainly give the smaller " Phonic" type of machine a run for it's money.

Martin Bryan from all reports is busy, still collecting and doing well. I still think that it is a shame he lay The Graphic to rest.


Jim

Thanks, Jim! I've just attached your scan of the July 1987 Graphic to the "Inventory of Beethoven and Schubert Edisonic Phonographs."

Yes, we are now up to 28 Schuberts that have been identified as existing into our lifetimes (from 1987 until the present) and, apart from #3398, one can hope that all the rest are still with us at present.

One of my long-time antique phonograph dealers (who's been in the business since the 1960s) says that it's his impression that around 20% of the acoustical phonographs have survived to this day. Again, that is just his impression--but it's as good as anyone's out there, given his long tenure in the field.

Let's venture a bit further, just for the fun of it. If around 4000 Schuberts were manufactured, then one can hope that ca. 800 exist to this day--if my local dealer is indeed on to something. I think that is too high. Sure, my "inventory" has only begun, but I have been at it for nearly a week and have pretty intensively searched on-line. My hunch is that we can eventually get the list up to 100 within a couple years--but I can't imagine that there would remain more than 400 hidden away after that. Again, wholly unscientific: but as a rough preliminary guess I'd say that only 400-500 still exist worldwide.

Ralph