Edison Home ICS Language Cylinder Repeater Machine

[long_island_phono]

Just picked this machine up recently. It came with some Language cylinders and Grand Opera boxes plus horn. The celluloid name plate shows that it was from a Lyon and Healy store.

I was struggling to decipher the purpose of the saw-toothed attachment that is screwed onto the carriage arm guide when I realized after playing a Language cylinder that it must be a short playback mechanism for the language course records. Sure enough, after doing a quick search online, I found a number of examples of ICS modified Edison machines. However, they were all Standards. Also they all had an ICS celluloid nameplate. Apparently they originally came with 14" horns and ear tubes.

Has anyone every encountered an ICS Home? My feeling is that this was a custom machine that someone ordered. Perhaps they favored the Home so they had the kit installed on the machine. This explains not only the lack of ICS namplate, but also the Language cylinders that came with the machine and the Grand Operas as they are foreign language recordings! There is no indication that a crane was mounted to the case so I image the horn is original to the machine as well.

It is interesting to ponder how someone may have purchased these Grand Operas ( wherever the actual records are) for language-learning. I should note that the Language cylinder cases state that they are Italian, but the cylinders are Spanish (2) and French.

[Andersun]

Interesting machine! Lyon & Healy, a big music store and instrument manufacturer out of Chicago, distributed many ICS phonographs as you see many with their nameplate on them. I have never seen or heard of a Home ICS. Does your Home have any speed limiters on it?

I bet it runs nice and quiet too! ICS machines were typically not used very often and are often found in excellent condition.

I have a GEM ICS Model E which is another rare one. It's motor is the quietest GEM motor I have even heard and has a modified governor so you cannot play anything above 90 t.p.i..

If you look in the window you might see your machine sitting on the counter ready to be shipped out...................

[Brad]

Didn't the ICS machines have a different thread pitch on the feedscrew? If so, that would make this machine truly custom, or at least very rare as the feedscrews are not compatible between a Standard and a Home.

[long_island_phono]

That's a great picture of the Lyon and Healy store!

About the phono:

The machine is in incredible shape. It runs very quiet, and the topworks are still shiny, retaining 99% pinstriping. I merely buffed the finish with an old t-shirt and it turned out amazing. This machine wasn't used often.

The speed control knob takes the machine down to the recommended 90 RPM used for the ICS cylinders and then back up to regular 2 minute speed. I have had no problem playing either type of record.

It has 2/4 minute gearing so the feedscrew is exactly what you'd find on any similarly equipped Home.

[Andersun]

The speed control knob takes the machine down to the recommended 90 RPM used for the ICS cylinders and then back up to regular 2 minute speed. I have had no problem playing either type of record.

I had an ICS Standard Model B which had no limiter. It was a regular Standard with the repeater on it and the International Correspondence School tag on the front.

Steve

[Chuck]

That is a very nice machine! Thank you for
posting it.

I too just encountered the rack mechanism for
the first time. It is used on the Dictaphone
Model 12 dictating machine.

Every time the carriage is set down in playback
mode, it backs up a few grooves to repeat the
last few words. When set down in the "record"
mode it bumps the carriage forward a hair to keep
from starting the new recording over the previously recorded grooves.

Those machines turn the mandrel at 80 rpm and
the grooves are 150 per inch. A 6 inch dictation cylinder can hold 11 minutes, 15 seconds of sound.

So, they optimized it for maximum playing time.
But....in doing so, they also pessimized the
sound quality. There is no free lunch.