The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

rgordon939 wrote:Yes Jan the link was attached to a shoe that was attached to the glass diaphragm with a drop of shellac. When rebuilding them today Steve Medved uses STRATENA. He says that this works the best. Here is a picture of Automatic #64762 that is in Standard S283, and Automatic #2573 the lowest number Automatic reproducer known.

Rich Gordon

According to Tewksbury's "The Phonograph and How to Use It" (1900), stratena was the standard adhesive for stylus links on Automatic reproducers.

Bill

Lucius1958 wrote:

rgordon939 wrote:Yes Jan the link was attached to a shoe that was attached to the glass diaphragm with a drop of shellac. When rebuilding them today Steve Medved uses STRATENA. He says that this works the best. Here is a picture of Automatic #64762 that is in Standard S283, and Automatic #2573 the lowest number Automatic reproducer known.

Rich Gordon

According to Tewksbury's "The Phonograph and How to Use It" (1900), stratena was the standard adhesive for stylus links on Automatic reproducers.

Bill

Where in the world do you buy Stratena? When I google it , all I get is reference to a town.

I used to see somebody selling it on ebay every so often. I did find this adding the word "adhesive":

Stratena. This well-known household cement is said to be prepared as follows: Dissolve 12 parts of white glue in 16 of acetic acid, and then add this solution to one of 2 parts gelatine in 16 of water. After mixing add 2 parts shellac varnish.

Page 252, "Glue, Gelatine, Animal Charcoal, Phosphorus, Cements, Pastes, And Mucilages..." by F. Dawidowsky. English version edited by William T. Brannt. Published by Henry Carey Baird & Co. 1905

All that said, I've used shellac and it works just fine.

Regards,
Martin

Thanks Martin. I'll try adrop of Shellac.

Regarding the size of Squarebox Standard bases, for what it's worth I have measured five that were easily accessable.

12 ⅜" x 9 1/16" 4 Clip.
11 ⅞" x 8 ¾" 4 Clip.
11 11/16" x 8 9/16" 2 Clip.
11 ⅞" x 8 7/16" 2 Clip.
11 11/16" x 8 ⅞" 2 Clip.

A fair variation.
Alistair.

Thanks Alistair. I guess it wasn't so precise back then.