The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

That's a nice looking Echophone!

I know this won't help the question at hand but, I find it odd that on most of the Echophones I have seen, the name stamped into the base is crooked. And it's not just a tiny bit skewed, it seems to be considerably crooked. Does anyone know why this is? Not that it matters all too much, but if I was producing something to be sold to the public that represented me or my company, I would make sure the little details like the stamp in the base were done correctly. Any thoughts?

Thanks regarding my Echophone. It is such a simple and crude instrument and amazing it even works. The fact that the glass rod survived intact is also amazing.

As far as why the Echophone imprints were crooked, I am not sure. I can only state a few guesses.

These were cheap machines. I'm not sure how many were made, but perhaps there just wasn't much funding to really care how well the "brand" was stamped into the machine vs mass producing these.

My other thought is could these Echphones have been premiums by this point and no one really cared as to how they looked, just as long as they were disposed of? I believe I remember seeing one that said Edison on it, which I am sure was a premium.

Scott