The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hey Moo, how about an update on the progress with your HMV 1A automatic gramophone. Have you got it sorted out yet? And can you post your pictures of it to this forum, please? I went looking for them recently and couldn't find them. I think maybe they got lost when the earlier forum went bust.

Greg,

I was able to track down Mooo’s images, so I’ll go ahead and post them, although he’ll have to update us on the progress with that machine.

— MordEth

[hr][/hr]

(the small motor can be seen at the back of the photo above)



(above are the resistor banks that Mooo changed from 240V to 110V)

Thanks for finding the pix, David.

Very nice Mooooooo. I don't know much about these. Seems an unlikely find in the US. I hope one of you can give a bit more detailed description. Thanks, Valecnik

As far as anyone can tell, this machine is not simply just a rarity, but very probably unique!

And by that, I do mean the only one in the world and not "unique" as it is often misused in countless Ebay descriptions!

Steve wrote:As far as anyone can tell, this machine is not simply just a rarity, but very probably unique!

And by that, I do mean the only one in the world and not "unique" as it is often misused in countless Ebay descriptions!

Are you serious
Is this the ONLY One in the world? O, my. Good thing that a great man owns it then, One that lets the world see it.
Were there any more made, that has been discarded by time, or was this the only one ever, like a prototype?

B.B.B wrote:Are you serious
Is this the ONLY One in the world? O, my. Good thing that a great man owns it then, One that lets the world see it.
Were there any more made, that has been discarded by time, or was this the only one ever, like a prototype?

The 1A was a very short lived orthophonic machine with auto mechanism similar to the Victor 10-50 BUT the "standard" 1A was produced in walnut with "florentine bronze" metalwork. Moo's machine is certainly the only known example of a 1A (yet to turn up anywhere or be "catalogued" anyway!) in satinwood or whatever that wood is (?) with gold plated metalwork and that grille design. It was very probably made as a one-off for a very wealthy customer for whom money was no object. It could even have been made for a member of the British Royal family. Sadly, we'll never know.

Steve