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I really agree. There is something completely fishy about this, it looks odd/awkward to me. (Just something Edison wouldn't approve of.)

Benjamin_L wrote:I really agree. There is something completely fishy about this, it looks odd/awkward to me. (Just something Edison wouldn't approve of.)

Given the dedication that was demanded out of Edison's dealers and by extension, their sales staff, I wouldn't be surprised by almost anything an enterprising salesman might do to sell his wares.

I once came across a photograph in The Talking Machine World (April 15, 1918; pg. 122) of an A 100 set up in "...in the Wilds of Nevada" in a mining camp, for instance. Keep in mind that the continent was not very easily traversed, yet there were "boom towns" all over America.

Best,
Fran

phonogfp wrote:Jiminy Christmas - I didn't even notice the record on the turntable!

What the heck is that record? (Aside from possibly being the catalyst for the "salesman sample" story...?)

George P.

Norman sells/sold copies of the original Edison DD sample record. Perhaps this is one of those rare originals - or perhaps one of his copies?

Norman's was the Demonstration Record from 1912/13. The one pictured on the turntable of this C 19 looks like the Sample Records distributed to dealers in the mid-1920s. Except the label is unique in my experience.

George P.

billybob62 wrote:Oh, to have been the lucky salesman schlepping that thing, in 2 parts yet,from door to door, store to store or store to door.

Yeah, and HOW. Like building a pyramid!

I'm curious as to how well the graining matches on the upper and lower halves. If it's a match, I'd be more inclined not to dismiss the salesman sample theory just out of hand. If they're different, well, maybe it's just another machine that someone hacked the bottom off of and then someone else found a bottom to put back under it later.

I have an Edison salesman's sample, but not of a phonograph. It is the well-known biography call Thomas A. Edison, Benefactor of Mankind, by Francis Trevelyan Miller, Universal Book and Bible House, Philadelphia, 1931. It is a very skinny book of about 50 pages with a section in the back for the names and addresses of prospective customers. So, it is very possible that there could have been a version of a salesman's phonograph to show to potential prospects. Having it in two parts would make it possible to carry in the trunk of a car. But it could be bogus too. Have to do some sleuthing on this one! Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, we need you!

marcapra wrote: Have to do some sleuthing on this one! Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, we need you!

^^^ That's the hard part. It most likely could prove to be impossible to ever track down any proof of a single salesman's modification, or for that matter, even a dealer's.

Unless this were common practice, it probably wouldn't have ever been documented.

It would be nice to examine the transport handles. Somehow they would have to be precisely dated, i.e.: If they were the same manufacture as those found on the Army-Navy. Of course; even if they were the same manufacture, it would still be inconclusive.

Best,
Fran

I think that even if this were a salesman's sample, it would have to be a home-made unit made by the salesman or dealer. Or it could have even been made by an owner who wanted to make it easier to move from apartment to apartment?

I'm suspicious about the trunk handles, and the screws securing them to the sides of the machine.

The heads of the screws are a little too big for the countersink in the mounting plate, causing the screw-heads to sit-proud of the plate. I don't think the factory would have settled for this. I would have also expected oval-head screws.

Also, the finish on the trunk-handles / screws looks a little to0 bright-satiny ( either modern hardware plating or gold spray paint ) to be 1920's era hardware; this would have been brass-plated steel (if brass-finish), and if a salesman's sample, would surely have the plating worn-away to the base-metal at the contact areas...

It seems to me, that if this was done for "ease of transport", than there would be handles on the bottom half, also?
Just a thought..........

Iowa Dale