Collecting Edison Reproducers

[fonograph]

Thanks George...would this also be correct for a spring motor?

[phonogfp]

Since the first Spring Motors were available from the United States Phonograph Company in March 1896, that muddies the waters a bit. USPCo might have used old stock reproducers to equip its machines. I'd say if you're a real stickler for authenticity, only the earliest Spring Motors, bearing a "United States Phonograph Company" nickeled tag would be correct with an unmarked Automatic. But we're really splitting hairs here...!

George P.

[fonograph]

Thanks George. Mine is a later model without the designation.

[Menophanes]

For many years I have used Model R reproducers for all types of moulded cylinder. (In case any reader does not know, the Model R has a large [42mm] diaphragm in an enlarged body which sits on top of the normal carrier-arm ring rather than within it; on the back of the body is an extension which fits within the ring, and inside this a lengthened wire link goes to a weight which is identical to that of the Model C or H apart from an extended hinge-block.) I have three Rs: one with a four-minute stylus, one with a two-minute (the R was not designed to accept this but does so without any problem) and one spare. The front of the body is pot-metal and tends to distort, sometimes swelling so much that the neck of a normal horn will not go on, but one of mine has a replacement front of fairly recent date which corrects this problem. There is a striking difference in tone quality from the types with the smaller diaphragm.

For brown-wax cylinders I use Columbia machines with floating reproducers. Even here in Britain one can sometimes buy (as I did some years ago) a complete Columbia Q for no more than the price of an Edison Automatic.

Oliver Mundy.