Are electric Edisons over appreciated?

[Jerry B.]

We've been discussing the merits and rarity of electric Victrolas and spring driven Victrolas on a different thread. What does the collecting community think of an electric cylinder machine versus a spring driven cylinder machine? Should an electric Edison Alva be worth approximately the same as an Edison Triumph? Why?

[marcapra]

I have an electric Edison which is a Edison C-4 from 1929. The C stands for radio/phonograph combination. I guess it's of note as it's the Edison company's last floor model phonograph. It plays needle cut 78s only, not DDs. I also have an R5 and an R6. The R5 is Edison's cheapest 1929 radio and the R6 is Edison's best 1930 radio. All Edison radios from '29 and '30 feature "Light-O-Matic" which flashes an orange light when you reach your station. To my knowledge, no full-size floor model phonographs were produced by the Edison Co. after the C-4 in '29.

[VintageTechnologies]

I think John Q. Public would likely be more interested in a windup cylinder phonograph than an electric, but most collectors would have other ideas. In a house full of windups, I would welcome an electric for the novelty. So, if you have an Alva for sale at the same price as a Triumph, just send me an email.

[mf77]

I'll take the Alva any day
A friend of mine has one with a Music Master horn, and it is without doubt, the nicest sounding open horn cylinder machine I have ever encountered.
Until you hear one of these later electric phonographs, you just don't realise how much mechanical noise is present, each time you play a record on a spring wound machine, even on better machines like the Opera/Concert.
The Alva is as close as you'll hear to "running silent", having a barely audible electrical hum from the motor which is not picked up and amplified by the reproducer, and seems to completely disappear the moment the stylus touches the cylinders surface. All you do hear is the recording itself along with regular surface noise.
In my humble opinion, his Alva sounded every bit as good as his A1, until the lid was closed which further reduced record surface noise.

Aside from it's sound quality, the Alva is also a great example of a reliable, & reasonably early electrically driven machine (compared to say a VE 8-30), and I assume they didn't sell in great numbers at a time when AC current was a luxury & unreliable, or cumbersome batteries were needed to power them, so in my mind the Alva would fall in the scarce/rare category, unlike the common as mud Triumph.
I have no idea what the production/sales figures were for the Alva, but in my 30+ years of collecting, I've seen more Ideal/Idealia's offered for sale than Alva's.

[Uncle Vanya]

The Edison company rather strongly advised against the sale of the Alva as an entertainment machine, suggesting that it was better suited to advertising purposes. The motor used in the Alva, fine as it was, did not regulate well on the rather uncertain electric supply systems of the early 1900's. A line voltage change of as little as three volts made a noticable waver in pitch. The early Victor and Columbia electric motors suffered from a similar problem, thigh they had a slightly wider voltage range. It was not until the introduct of better electric distribution system standards and the Induction Disc motor (which wil regulate well with a suppy voltage variation as wide as fifteen volts) that electric drive bacame a major market force.

The Alva performs better today than it ever did in its own time, I suspect.

[Player-Tone]

+ Edison is known for his controbutions in electricity (Along with poor Nicola Tesla who seems to have been forgotten by the general public), so it's neat to have an electric Edison phonograph-it's very 'Edison'.

[Andersun]

Not many Alvas exist. I can only account for about 8 or 9. The early ones were DC only and the later ones could be used on both AC and DC power. It is extremely quiet running with a nice constant speed.

I have an Alva and a Class M. They are the best machines to demonstrate because you don't have to crank or worry about breaking anything. Just flip the switch and they play flawlessly every time.

It's amazing on how well a Class M plays. I adjusted the brushes on the governor and armature back in 2011. Its been running perfectly ever since then.

Steve

[Uncle Vanya]

Does your total include the four reported Antipodean examples, and the machine that I have in Southern Mi?

My machine is incomplete, now. The collector who owned the machine before me balked at the cost of motor repair ($50.00 so he told me) back in the early 1970's, and so he discarded the original it and replaced it with a later nickle-Plated Ekonowatt unit.

My machine is rather late, being a Model D, and so it would have originally used the square cast aluminum motor, as fitted to the wooden cased Business Phonographs.

[Andersun]

Does your total include the four reported Antipodean examples, and the machine that I have in Southern Mi?

Yes, my numbers are based on discussions I have had with other collectors including yourself and the ones I have seen myself including an early one which went on Ebay several months ago which was DC only with 2 lead posts rather than 3. I have seen 3 of them here in Florida (including mine). I have been keeping my eye open for an original motor for you. One of these days, one will show up. Undoubtedly there are more of them tucked away in collections, museums, and attics!

[Uncle Vanya]

I never for a moment imagined the Alva machines to be THAT rare. Scarce, yes, but not fewer than ten examples.

Great Guns!