The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Actually, I kind of like it in its current state and would display it unrestored... It shows all of its 100+ years of survival...

A small red flag went up- It seems that Primaphone was a make distributed in India. An Ebay search brings up several examples which range from genuine to crapophone. This could be a real machine, but it might have been messed with.

Curt A wrote:Actually, I kind of like it in its current state and would display it unrestored... It shows all of its 100+ years of survival...

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n15Oe7Hlk4) I just have to say I disagree.

Benjamin_L wrote:

Curt A wrote:Actually, I kind of like it in its current state and would display it unrestored... It shows all of its 100+ years of survival...

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n15Oe7Hlk4) I just have to say I disagree.

that seemed pretty rude

So let's summarize. I initially thought the machine might be a Columbia derivative. Where did we end up? It's a machine made in Switzerland but not for that country's domestic market. It's an export machine that was sold in the English colonies, specifically India. Someone speculated that the bracket looked like an HMV product. That makes sense. If you were selling your product abroad, you would want to make it look like what your potential customers expected. I find this machine interesting, one with a story.

This leads to another question. Do the early talking machines--and I'm thinking of the front-mount machines--belie their country of origin? If you were to show me a 19th C clock, for example, I could take one look at the movement and tell you whether it came from France, Germany, or the US. There were many makers in each of these countries, but each country had a national style, a definite way of making a clock. Is the same true for talking machines?

As for the puppet video, not sure why it's included in this thread. Sort of interesting, but not really relevant.

Most likely the mechanics were of Swiss Origin and the wood cabinet was made locally?

A good point. It would seem the motor gives away the country of origin. Would you say, Europeans in general prefered a pillar and plate motor with all the wheels sandwiched in between the two parallel plates, and US makers preferred--well I don't know what to call it, but the Victor and Columbian cast iron base plates with attachments bolted on to hold the mainspring arbor or the governor arbor? Words fail me. (Pillar and plate, by the way, is also a watchmaker's term to describe some what movements.) I don't know what to call the non-pillar-and-plate type motors used by Victor and Columbia.