The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here's an article I wrote about the Edison School Phonograph back in 2003. There were 26 known to exist then. More have turned up in the 21 years since, with 40 now recorded. School serial numbers are interspersed among regular Opera numbers. The data plates are simply marked 'Opera,' with no School designation.

Great article!!!! Thanks for sharing.

Rene,

Did you get any additional insight into production numbers based upon the new examples that cropped up?

Garret

Wow very interesting article! Just want to make sure I’ve got this correct - the entire body is made of steel and not wood? I always thought it was just an Opera painted black.

Is it heavier or lighter than a typical Opera? Does it basically sound the same? Would love to see one. My Opera is a favorite machine of mine, although I kind of wish it could also play two minute cylinder.

Garret wrote: Sun Aug 25, 2024 3:40 am Did you get any additional insight into production numbers based upon the new examples that cropped up?

Garret

Not really. There are a couple of serial number blocks which are primarily devoted to School Phonographs, but every now and then a normal wood Opera appears in the block. Other School numbers are more randomly distributed, mixed among regular machines. Clearly there were a couple of production runs devoted primarily to building inventory, but otherwise they were produced as needed. Overall, the number of reported survivors of Operas is running about 10% of the total known to be produced, right in line with a commonly-mentioned survival estimate for many antiques. If we work on that assumption, 40 surviving School Phonographs would imply around 400 total production, which seems plausible.

KCW wrote: Sun Aug 25, 2024 8:06 am Wow very interesting article! Just want to make sure I’ve got this correct - the entire body is made of steel and not wood? I always thought it was just an Opera painted black. Is it heavier or lighter than a typical Opera? Does it basically sound the same?

It's all steel and is consequently much heavier than a conventional Opera. It really needed that stand with casters to allow moving it from classroom to classroom. It does basically sound the same. Many people believe that wooden horns give a somewhat softer sound (I would agree) but the difference is really splitting hairs. The School Phonograph is an Opera in every way except for the material from which the cabinet and horn are constructed. So it's a lot more similar than different in operation.

just asking this but not to dewire the thread, is there any reason they were made out of metal?

Since these were expected to be handled roughly by hundreds of small children, Edison's staff felt that metal would withstand such abuse much better than wood. In the Edison Phonograph Monthly they wrote that "The metal casing is particularly well suited to use in a school-room where it is apt to be fingered by many hands in various stages of greasiness."

TinfoilPhono wrote: Sun Aug 25, 2024 8:13 pm "...apt to be fingered by many hands in various stages of greasiness."

lol

Really interesting threads I’m learning a lot. With this machine being so rare, if one were to go for auction what kind of price would it go for? I know this is a wild guess but I’m just curious.