The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

WDC wrote:I love the pure white gasket material which is very soft compared to most others.

Ja gewiß! In my rebuilt Exhibition the white gasket material was used, and it has made all the difference---it's absolutely essential!

Yours is a lovely machine. Congratulations!

This is fascinating and the cabinet is glorious. The horn seems to be the same as the ones in the HMV saxhorn machines. I guess The Gramophone Company didn't take out a patent on the design. The machine does sound very good I have to say.

Jim

Lenoirstreetguy wrote:This is fascinating and the cabinet is glorious. The horn seems to be the same as the ones in the HMV saxhorn machines. I guess The Gramophone Company didn't take out a patent on the design. The machine does sound very good I have to say.

Jim, you're kidding me, right? HMV not taking out a patent. Simply unthinkable and unheard of!

I also think you'll find that APOLLO were the first to use this system and HMV simply "borrowed" the idea and ran with it (whilst arguing with Victor over Western Electric royalties). I THINK the Apollo machines with saxophone horn came in around 1923. Does anyone else know for sure?

Steve

You're right about the Apollo. Their design was similar but more rounded like a sousaphone. They were also a little hissy in some of their ads using phrases like "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" clearly aimed at HMV.
I will have to dig out that ad.....

Jim

That will be an interesting ad to see, Jim. I suppose Apollo wished they'd patented the design & could have made HMV pay through the nose to use it.
I had the horn out of my HMV 162 a few weeks ago, & they have registered design numbers stamped onto the horn- which I probably should have written down somewhere. Here's a photo of the horn for anyone that hasn't seen a sax-horn before. I would imagine the Hymnophon horn is basically the same, but with the addition of the larger soundbox would out-perform the 162.

Aha! Thank you, Shane, I hadn't seen a saxophone horn out of its cabinet before (at least not like that anyway! ) even though I do also have a 162. These horns do work quite well but from my experience they need to be quite long with a very large opening to be really effective. The 162 just isn't big enough in my opinion. The 192 was better but it still wasn't as good a machine as the 511 that didn't even have a "scientifically designed" horn - more like made to fit a cabinet for convenience horn.

The HMV's were very short-lived. I don't know about this machine or the Apollos though?

HMV tried a similar tactic in the Ca. 1925 table models, my 109 has a metal horn with a tight S-curve it it to increase the length while fitting into an old style cabinet. It was a stop gap measure before they were able to use the folded horn. With a #4 reproducer it sounds quite good.

Very Lovely machine !

Any idea what woods were used for the veneers ?