The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Let me just say that I am regularly re-astounded at the bounty of information on this forum. By the way, I don't know if anybody here has an interest but if you want to bid on that, go ahead. You'll not be sniping me. I only asked about it because I was curious.

Here are a few pictures of my Edison Business Machine Model-D from 1905. It is a beautiful machine to look at and is one of my favorite machines. You can record on it using standard dictaphone cylinders. I especially like the brown wax Cylinders. The machine ran on either AC or DC. You would make that selection on the rear of the machine. I also included a picture of the machines recording horn.

rgordon939 wrote:Here are a few pictures of my Edison Business Machine Model-D from 1905. It is a beartiful machine to look at and is one of my favorite machines. You can record on it using standard dictaphone cylinders. I especially like the brown wax Cylinders. The machine ran on either AC or DC. You would make that selection on the rear of the machine. I also included a picture of the machines recording horn.

Very nice. Looks like yours is complete, unlike the one on eBay.

Clay

Yes Clay is is complete. I did forget to include the crain and power cord in the pictures. It run really good. I like to play old recorded dictaphone recordings just to hear the content.

Rich Gordon

*click* Noice.

This is kind of an offshoot of this basic Business Machine thread:

It is a long-standing question I have which has come up
from time to time. It is about the groove pitch.

These Edison business machines are said to have 150
grooves per inch.

That would then lead one to believe that 150 TPI might
be the standard used for dictation machines.

However, since I have obtained and restored (2) Dictaphone brand machines here, and also have done some accurate measurements on them, here is what I found out:

Apparently they are set up to play and record at 160
grooves per inch. I am quite sure of this number because
it got right down to measuring with a dial calipers
and hand-counting turns of the mandrel.

It also makes sense because for a 6 inch long
Dictaphone blank turning at 80 rpm and having 160
grooves per inch, that comes out to an even 12 minutes
of recording and playing time per cylinder.

So, it appears that Edison used 150 TPI on his
business machines, while Dictaphone used 160 TPI.

I would like to hear what others think about this
and what others have found out along these lines.

Thanks,

Chuck

Yes 150 for Edison 160 for Dictaphone.

160 tpi was the standard for Columbia dictation machines since the original treadle Graphophones.

Bill