The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

And the day is probably coming when people will look back in horror at the wanton destruction of what are now "ordinary" later 78s so common in recent decades. Today's trash often turns out to be tomorrow's treasure.

Clay

Pretty deft handling of drilling and slicing that record without it going to pieces.

I'd bet it was all done slowly, with hand=tools...

A true crossover technology.

I wonder where the template may have come from, I would assume this sort of project would have been showcased in an amatuer radio publication.

Fran

Back in the day they didn't know that the Eldridge Johnson Monarch records would be valuable.edisonplayer

fran604g wrote:A true crossover technology.

I wonder where the template may have come from, I would assume this sort of project would have been showcased in an amatuer radio publication.

Fran

I was thinking the same thing, Fran.... like a Popular Science DIY project...

fran604g wrote:A true crossover technology.

I wonder where the template may have come from, I would assume this sort of project would have been showcased in an amatuer radio publication.

Fran

Could well have been, or perhaps using a kit of some sort for part of the components.

Clay

The metal hardware and knobs / wiper-arms are factory-made hardware... perhaps a kit, perhaps a magazine project with a parts-list for shopping ( mail-order, no doubt ! ).


I have an early battery set ( two tubes, single tuning "condenser", single vario-coupler ) that utilizes factory-made hardware and a very shiny black front panel ( probably Bakelite ), but the "cabinet" is a pretty crude wooden box with lap-joints, held together with round-head wood-screws ( blued ). The wiring looks more like plumbing: solid #14 wire, with a squarish cross-section, sleeved with lacquered red "spaghetti", all straight-line runs with right-angle bends... very.... workman-like. It's the aesthetic opposite of an elegant Atwater-Kent breadboard, but compelling in its workmanship.

I have no idea if it ever worked; someday a talking-machine buddy who is an Electrical Engineer by trade, and antique radio and phono enthusiast, will go through it, find some tubes ( -00 and 01-A ), and power it up and see if we get anything in the "cans"...

That sounds like a lot of fun, Frank!

I've always liked the crystal sets, my Dad taught me to build one when I was in 1st or 2nd grade just after my Morse code key and oscillator.

I, of course, dutifully forgot just about everything he taught me, however.

The early bread board radio sets always intrigued me, I'd love to see some pictures of yours.

Fran

They repurposed a lot of things back then, too - they just didn't call it by that name. Figure that the record was 20 years old and probably regarded as obsolete by the time the radio was made and you can see why. At least he didn't use a first issue Tamagno Red Seal! Hard rubber would have been the material of choice for the panel, but he likely could only afford the parts that were absolutely necessary, and used whatever was available for everything else. Maybe his mother never knew he trashed her favorite record.


Jim