"Operaphone" Phonograph...Odd Machine

[estott]

Oh now THAT is interesting! It looks as if Pathé was trying to move surplus Actuelle cabinets by fitting them with conventional components. Maybe they re branded them as Operaphone to distance themselves from the results.

[one_eyed_pete]

I know I'm late to the party but I just discovered this forum while searching for info . I too have an OPERAPHONE phonograph which I just inherited from my mother. It looks like the other two discussed here with different serial no. I'll try t post pic's. once I figure out how. My quest is to find out it's value and learn how to re-attach the tone arm correctly. I even inherited a box of old records.

[estott]

I know I'm late to the party but I just discovered this forum while searching for info . I too have an OPERAPHONE phonograph which I just inherited from my mother. It looks like the other two discussed here with different serial no. I'll try t post pic's. once I figure out how. My quest is to find out it's value and learn how to re-attach the tone arm correctly. I even inherited a box of old records.

I've been to see this machine (it is near me) and yet again the original tone arm is gone- the replacement is generic and broken. It's an oak Actuelle case and though it would need a lot of work the machine is quite interesting- I'll post a couple pictures tomorrow when I have time.

[estott]

Here is the machine I saw last night. The tone arm is a replacement and while it is the proper length there's some kind of bearing missing & it just drops down into the base - we packed it in an attempt to play a record.

The owner has not made up his mind to sell it- he'd like to look into making it operable before doing so and I'm going to direct him to George Vollema for help with the tone arm and motor problems.

The machine has been in his family since at least 1926 and until June it was in rural Kentucky. There is a bit of history attached to it and his Mother which I will leave to him to tell.

If anyone wants more details on this machine please contact the owner - he's "one-eyed-pete" and posted a couple messages back.

[howardpgh]

For record label see http://forum.talkingmachine.info/downlo ... &mode=view

[pughphonos]

See this thread for an update on my research into the Pathé oval horn, made of "Pathol." It was definitely a late Pathé creation, meant to clear out inventory of the old Actuelle cabinets--and initially advertised by Pathé as part of their "DeLuxe" line of 1923-24. But all surviving examples (three, I believe) have either Operaphone or Prestonia ID tags on them; Pathé obviously cut these loose in 1924 and passed them along to other companies.

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 29#p143329

Image below is a scan of Pathé literature from around 1923-24 that shows and describes the Pathé "Pathol" oval horn; as reproduced in Copeland & Dethlefson's Pathé Records and Phonographs in America, 1914-1922, Appendix 3.

Ralph

[startgroove]

See pughphono in another thread; "Further research in the Copeland & Dethlefson book Pathé Records and Phonographs in America, 19441922 (Appendix 3) shows the Pathé Oval Horn as represented in Pathé literature from around 1923-24 (see below). The description states that the horn was made out of Pathol; sounds like a name based on the name Pathé?

At any rate, this proves that the Pathol horn was a Pathé creation and Pathé probably outfitted a number of leftover Actuelle cabinets with them before turning over their distribution to Operaphone; most of the surviving examples of these machines with Pathol horns have the Operaphone ID on them, with the sole exception being one with the Prestonia ID tag. All surviving examples are of the cabinets that had previously housed the Pathé Actuelle model H (the plainest upright).

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2905&hilit=operaphone

The purpose of the odd-shaped Pathol horns was clearly to fit the odd cabinet spaces left over by the re-purposing of the old Actuelle cabinets. In the case of the model H, it meant creating a horn that was very wide but not very high. In the case of the Sheraton cabinets, such a horn would have been very small as very little space was available for it (as can be seen via the photos and dimensions I provided earlier in this thread). One wonders how good--or bad--the sound was after traveling through such a horn (see additional photos below; as copied from the string linked above)."

[De Soto Frank]

I have a Pathéphone VII, not closely related, but an American Pathé` product.

American Pathé` seems to have sourced their motors, and presumably the rest of their hardware from Heinemann...


Is it a safe bet that the tone-arm for the Operaphone / Prestonia came from Heinemann too ?

[estott]

I have a Pathéphone VII, not closely related, but an American Pathé` product.

American Pathé` seems to have sourced their motors, and presumably the rest of their hardware from Heinemann...


Is it a safe bet that the tone-arm for the Operaphone / Prestonia came from Heinemann too ?

I would not be certain of that- Heineman arms are generally of good quality and durable, even with pot metal content. On both Operaphone machines that have turned up the arms are gone.

[pughphonos]

I have a Pathéphone VII, not closely related, but an American Pathé` product.

American Pathé` seems to have sourced their motors, and presumably the rest of their hardware from Heinemann...


Is it a safe bet that the tone-arm for the Operaphone / Prestonia came from Heinemann too ?

I would not be certain of that- Heineman arms are generally of good quality and durable, even with pot metal content. On both Operaphone machines that have turned up the arms are gone.

Estott, what do you think of the likelihood that the two model H's that now bear the Operaphone tag never had tone arms installed to begin with; that they were in the process of conversion (from their original Actuelle configurations) but never completed?

All we know, apparently, is that the converter/creator of these two Operaphones didn't want to return to the old Pathé tone arms; but we don't know what would ever have been "standard" for this stillborn line--that was being cobbled together one-by-one.

For that matter, are there any surviving examples of completed Pathé "DeLuxes" (that is, with the Pathol oval horns AND the old tone arms--as per the 1923-24 literature reproduced above)? Even my Sheraton cabinet, with its evidence of being converted to a model 27 "DeLuxe," might never have been completed either.

Venturing further, all we have in the Pathé literature for 1923-24 about the "DeLuxes" are artistic renderings; no photos of completed machines. Maybe they were taking orders; and when the orders were not sufficient, Pathé washed its hands of the line--and let Operaphone and Prestonia have a go at satisfying the few orders that had been placed?

Ralph