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A couple of guys on another list are convinced it's a cylinder recorder, but the lever-mounted cutter makes me wonder. I can't see why a hill & dale recorder would use such a thing.

In the acoustic era, recorders came in many different shapes, sizes, configurations, etc. This particular unit does lay with the diaphragm parallel to the recorded surface which was more common in cylinder technology, but yes, the advance ball mount and the pivot-armed stylus holder seems to indicate that the desired output is lateral in nature, not vertical which cued me that it might be one of Emerson's recorders. There is no stylus so it's hard to tell. A Pathé hill and dale acoustic recorder would ride in the same manner and cut a vertical sound line as opposed to a semi-lateral as this one would.

Out of curiosity, I checked out the patent referred to in the article I posted a link to above -- http://www.google.com/patents/about?id= ... ood+639452

Doesn't seem to provide a clue to the identity of the mystery recording head, but I'm wondering if there's anything similar to it in one of the phonograph patents. Don't have time now to check, unfortunately.....

The Smallwood patent is nothing like what's pictured above. You won't find exact specifics in patents for any acoustic recorder since they were so secret. What we find in artifacts today is the most detailed information anyone will find on recording technology of the acoustic era. Edison was more specific than any of the lateral companies in his patents and the material within his patents refer to several different technologies that were being developed simultaneously. Only vague references to the processes were made in most patents so it would be extremely difficult for other companies to copy technology of the time. Find a patent reference to the Sooy brothers recorders (they worked for Victor) - you won't. During sessions, if one of them had to go to the bathroom they removed the recorder from the lathe and took it with them. Most acoustic recorders weren't patented at all - only the pressing or copying technology. That's how secretive the industry was back then, primarily because the technology was so simple that it would be fairly easy to copy.

On this same note, are there any extant examples of the Sooy brother's recorders? I've played some of the later acoustics (1918 and onward) by Victor on my Orthophonic and the sound quality is incredible - almost like an electric recording made in an entirely dead room. The detail is amazing on some titles; more classical than others.

On page 45 of the latest ITG, there is a very similar recorder attached to a Triumph A in the top photo. This photo was taken by Mike Devecka in Oct 1998 at the Edison National Park. According to the article, this machine is on display in the new phonograph exhibit on the 3rd floor of Laboratory Building Five.
I'm not sure if I am allowed to reproduce the photo here.

-Bill

For those that don't subscribe to ITG (In The Groove), below is the photo I mentioned that bears a very strong resemblance to the one that sold on eBay. It does make sense that this would be a cylinder recorder due to the way it attaches to the trunnion.

Bill

Studio cylinder recorders are similar in configuration, but without the special armature for the stylus as on the recorder from ebay. This would change the action of the stylus from vertical to semi-lateral. You'll note that the recorder in the photo above has a similar thumbscrew for the advance ball since this is how groove depth was adjusted on most cylinder studio recorders. Some lateral studio recorders in the acoustic era used advance balls (on some Brunswick acoustic discs you can see advance ball scoring in the runout area) but many didn't since the carrier that held the diaphragm and stylus was light enough it could be adjusted simply by use of a counterbalance spring similar to a Presto (or other) electric recorder. Again, it's impossible to tell exactly which process the ebay recorder was used for since there is no stylus, but knowing about the Emerson universal process it would make sense that this type of recorder would produce the angular groove geometry that could be read by either a vertical disc machine like a Pathé or Edison or a lateral machine like a Victor or Columbia. Sort of primitive stereo groove geometry without the opposing action for another channel of audio information.