The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here is another subject which I'd like to run
past you all to get some different ideas.

Before I ask it, I must explain that all of the
cylinder recordings that I have made so far have been done using Edison home recorders. These are the later ones that typically show up with missing or detached stylus and stylus holder and the .002 inch thick mica diaphragm.

I currently have 5 of these recorders working.
2 of them had all the parts, but needed to be
reassembled, which I did back in the 1980s and
they are both still working well.

The other 3 are more recent rebuilds I did
since 2009. For all 3 of those I made the stylus holder myself based upon the instructions in The Compleat Talking Machine. One of those has a flat cutter made by Expert and the other 2 have cupped point cutters. The cupped point type work better I think.

I've had a fair amount of luck learning techniques for rebuilding these recorders.
Making the stylus holders out of sheet copper
has been one of the keys to putting some of
these recorder hulks back in service.

Ok, now with that explained, here's what I'd
like to delve into next: I would like to
experiment with an automatic recorder. Since
it has the threaded ring and since the stylus
is mounted in a bar with a pivot, it is much
easier to use for experiments where diaphragms
and gaskets are frequently swapped around
for various tests.

What I am wondering about mainly is the difference in the design of the automatic
recorder vs the later recorders. The
later ones have the notch at the 12-o'clock
position that engages the locating pin in the
later style carriage arm. The automatics do
not have the notch.

Here's are my questions: Are there notched
automatic recorder bodies out there available
to be purchased? I ask because I just hate
to butcher a fine one that is not notched.

I has also been discussed that the whole carriage arm with the half-nut can be easily
swapped out with an earlier style carriage arm
that does not have the notch. This would be
the style of carriage that has the two flat retainers held by screws.

What is the general consensus about fitting
one of these earlier arms to my later model D
combination 2/4 machine so I can use a non-notched automatic recorder?

To notch, or not to notch, that is the question.

Thanks, Chuck.

Don't deface the Automatic! Either use a carriage built for an Automatic or you can use a setscrew type and drive the locating pin out of the way or out completely. It can easily be replaced and you can center the Automatic and a light touch with the setscrew will hold it in position. If you should find an Automatic body which someone else has already messed up then it becomes a different situation. BUT: Whatever you do, make it reversible.

Jim

+1 to what Jim said.

George P.

Ok, I realize that I am dealing with two distinctly different styles of carriage-arms here.

The model D combination 2/4 machine that I use
has the later carriage arm that has the locater pin at the 12-o'clock position, and the little setscrew with the knurling on it.

This later system works very well for the
model C and H reproducers and with the later
home recorders. It is a very clean, easy, simple system I think.

The automatic recorder comes from a time before
that system was in place. It belongs to an
earlier era.

Anyone out there have a notched automatic recorder body or a complete one for sale?

I understand that from a caretaker of history
point of view that it's unacceptable to notch
an un-notched automatic recorder. However I
would not be above using one that somebody else
has already notched.

Thanks, Chuck

The update to this story is that I found
a complete automatic recorder that was built up
out of a bunch of parts.

The body is from a standard speaker, and it
came "pre-butchered" in that someone along the line somewhere, at some unknown time had filed
a big old flat right across the top of it!

This flat is large enough that it allows the
body to rotate in the carriage so that it could
work in both record and play modes when it was
a standard speaker.

So, as far as having an automatic recorder that
will fit in the later-style carriage that has
the pin, problem solved!

Chuck