The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I just bought A Pile of records a huge chunk of which were Standard Talking Machine Records. The Spindle Hole is much larger than regular but not as large as a 45rpm. Along with these there are a few others with the spindle hole drilled out to conform to the rest.
I'm assuming this was a proprietary measure. Does anyone Know much about the Standard Players?
I'll post a photo soon.

There was someone who made/sold spindle adapters for these to be played on any machine capable of playing 78s, but for the life of me, I cannot remember who it was. I know that John had made a graphic for him showing the different spindle sizes.

Hopefully someone else can provide the info so you can get one—otherwise I’ll make sure to ask John about it the next time I talk to him.

— MordEth

Thanks
-Ryan

Muad'dib wrote:I just bought A Pile of records a huge chunk of which were Standard Talking Machine Records. The Spindle Hole is much larger than regular but not as large as a 45rpm. Along with these there are a few others with the spindle hole drilled out to conform to the rest.
I'm assuming this was a proprietary measure. Does anyone Know much about the Standard Players?
I'll post a photo soon.

The standard players included an A, (the best as far as I know, about victor II dimentions) an X, (about front mount Victor E dimentions) and a small open works. I think there was also one table top. The machines were all of poor quality, motors sounded like combines and the record quality also was not great. They are cute little machines, the A especially with it's big red football shaped decal and red or blue horn but all in all not comparable in quality to Edison, Victor or Columbia of the time. I think they might have been premium machines but perhaps someone else knows for sure. I am frequently wrong as my wife will readily point out.

gramophoneshane wrote:As for an adaptor, I just went through my nuts & bolts, and found a nut that fits the spindle & hole

Shane,

Thanks for mentioning that; I’d forgotten that you’d suggested this solution previously (and I don’t have a Standard Record to reference for its spindle size).

— MordEth

Standard Disc phonographs fall into the category that collectors today call 'scheme' machines. This refers to a group of Chicago-based companies with interlocking boards of directors, whose primary function was to liquidate 'cut out' Columbia records by relabelling and drilling out the records, ads were then placed in magazines offering a dozen records for $6 with a free talking machine. Of course, the Columbia-made phonograph had a large spindle locking the purchaser into buying only the records drilled for that particular machine. Other brands include Harmony and United, which used progressively larger holes. Another company that did this sort of thing was O'Neill-James Co. that produced the Busy Bee line. Busy Bee cylinders are larger than an ordinary cylinder and thus were purpose-made rather than remaindering anything. BB cylinder machines are the same as the Columbia QQ Graphophones, while the disc machines were Hawthorne & Sheble products and had a normal spindle but an extra rectangular lug on the turntable that required an additional hole in the record. I believe these were purpose-made and not remaindered. Lastly, was the Aretino with a huge hole, the label being a mere ring. These machines were also H&S products.

John M

Thanks John,

That's about the best summary of the whole "Scheme Machine" scam and the reasons for it that I have ever heard. Also gives you a good idea of how much they invested in the quality of the talking machine when they were willing to give one away if you would buy as few as six records!

Amazingly they must have had some success as these machines and records do turn up rather regularly.

Bruce

Here is a video I just posted on the Standard AA open works machine.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD22vyI4C7g[/youtube]