I think of all the volume control gizmos produced during the acoustic era, Edison's "felt ball in the horn" system probably worked the best--at least, based on what I've listened to. I owned a Sonora Phonograph decades ago, and never liked the way the sound was dampened by the volume control, which I believe was a felt covered piece of thin wood that slid in and out of a slot embedded in the throat, between the tonearm and horn.
I've only come across a couple of Aeolian Vocalion Phonographs, both in "antiques" shops, and both with frozen sound boxes, so I can't say how well the Graduola works.
I have uploaded (hopefully) pictures of the Vocalion. I appreciate the information provided. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. Thanks again.
Attachments
ID Tag with style name copied to lower right corner
Thank you John for uploading the pictures of your machine. It's very nice & looks like it should be a fairly easy cosmetic restoration. I think the hardest part will be reproducing the missing applied carvings, although you are fortunate that parts that remain on either side can be used to make copies. These are usually made from plaster like material so they are pretty simple to reproduce with the aid of a mould & plaster.
I'm not sure how others do this, but I generally start by stablising what remains, then using plasticine I press it on the parts to create the mould. Once I've made a replacement along with a couple spares, I do the same again with the plasticine, then carefully stretch it out to enlarge the mould to create the next size up the ladder so to speak. It might take a few attempts to get the perfect replacement piece, but once you do, you can take a mould from it & do the stretching process again. The missing part of the top medalion will be harder, but it's not all that difficult to scrape out plasticine from a mould to continue the design as it would have been originally. It is fiddly & time consuming work I guess, but well worth the effort, and much better than removing what's left of the decoration & disguising where it once was.
Once all the pieces are back in place, then it's just a matter of staining/painting the plaster to match the original colour and finish.
I can't say I've seen this model before, but judging by the contrasting woods used & the gold plated hardware, this might be an art model, but I'm leaning more towards it being one of Aeolians higher end console models.
Hopefully someone on the board will have a catalogue or advertising that shows the same model, and can confirm it's proper identity.
It appears the arm for the automatic braking system has been disconnected, but provided there are no parts missing, it shouldn't be hard to reconnect & get working.
Once restored, you will have an attractive Aeolian that isn't very common, and they actually put out quite decent sound quality, so you should get much pleasure from it.
I'd also like to appologise for the nonsense you've had to plough through in this thread. It happens sometimes unfortunately, but I'm sure the moderators will remove all the unrelated posts very soon.
Good luck with the restoration, and enjoy!
There is a company in Chicago, Decorators Supply, that has been in business for decades, making just such decorative composition ornaments (they call them "onlays") as seen on this Aeolian cabinet. The prices for individual ornaments aren't so bad, but the $100 minimum order is a bit daunting.
They have an extensive catalog, and have quite literally thousands of ornament molds in the vaults.
The left side compartment in this Aeolian has an interesting pull-out drawer. It looks like it could accommodate a small Radiola panel (like the battery operated Radiola III), and the holes in the drawer back could allow for wires to the batteries and for antenna/ground connections. Not saying that's what was done, but it would be a possibility. The small ring pull on the drawer front looks in adequate for tugging a drawer full of records, but it wouldn't be unheard of either. I'm not aware of Aeolian offering the Radiola option (as Brunswick was doing by 1924) but it could have been a dealer option for the customer.
The ad available currently on ebay has a machine of a very close design, probably either a year model difference or a minor style version. I am going to link it here to see if it will post..
John JC, you mentioned another control inside the lid. If it's on the left of the turntable and has an arrow shaped knob, does the plate under it say "Volunome"? Mine has this feature as well as the "Graduola" and it seems to be just a set it and forget it volume control. I suppose, but am not sure if it controls the same control cone as the "Graduola" or not. Apparently, many more models had the graduola than the volunome, but the high end models had both. Bob Ault
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Bob Ault