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I believe you have a standard 2-4 minute mandrel adaptor. I thought the Bell Duplex was applied with only a 2 minute mandrel? Machines like these are very interesting. Do you have any information on who was the former owner?

Hi All,

Thanks for the feedback thus far. I guess what I'm trying to establish is whether machines left the factory as 5" concerts (upper works) on the Spring Motor plated lower works? I'm not sure if the low serial number is useful in helping to determine that. It had crossed my mind that it may have been a dual mandrel machine given it is Edison Bell.


The machine came from a lady (retired) whose father had purchased it.

Cheers,
Mario

Mario,
What does the motor look like?

Andersun wrote: The earliest one that I have seen was number 6.

Steve

Mario,

I stand corrected. The earliest one I have seen is serial number 3! Attached are some pictures of it. Note the pinstripe and filigree are the same on both top and bottom bed plates.
The dimensions of the Spring Motor Case is smaller than the Concert case. I will get you some dimensional differences between the two. It might take me a couple of days because the covers are buried away in a closet.

Steve

Hi Steve,

That's awesome! Thanks I'll take it! Please box carefully, I'll PM my address
Seriously though. Nice machine!

To be honest I haven't had a chance to have a good look at the machine or spend very much time with it! It was dropped of at my place on Sunday 15min or so before we packed the kids into the car and headed 3 ½ hours down the highway. So I haven't even looked at the motor but will take a pic when I get back tomorrow (I'll also go through the 100 cylinders it came with).

Cheers,
Mario

Andersun,
That is one beautiful machine.

Yes it is.... but unfortunately, it's not mine! It was at Union several years ago. I have been documenting as many Polyphones as I can.

Concert: Base = 16.5" X 12" Height w/ Lid 16 ¾"
Spring Motor = 16.5" X 10 ¼" Height w/ Lid 14"

A Spring Motor lid wont fit on a Concert case.
A Spring Motor lid wont fit on a Spring Motor bottom with a Concert upper bed plate.
The Spring Motor and Concert have the same lower bed plate and box dimensions. Roughly 14.5" X 9".

The lower case and lower bed plate pin stripe filigree on your machine look Spring Motor.

Let us know what you find out.

One more problem when I looked closely to the pics: can anyone explain why there are two holes on the left side of upper casting. I don't see anything can go from that position horn supporting? repeater???

Hi Steve and others,

So the height of the lid is a tad over 16 inches. Which leads me to therefore think that the machine had originally been a 5" machine supplied on a Spring Motor base. Wasn't this happening at the time? Were machines leaving the factory using up stock that had previously not been sold? I'm not sure...? I have heard it mentioned before.

A picture of the motor is attached, the motor serial number is #3370

Yes there are two drill holes in the side of the upper casting and they look to be threaded.

Cheers,
Mario