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Phonograph, that is. Ever see one? I'd like one! The patent is interesting, and is here: http://www.google.com/patents/US1040034

This is interesting, and it made me do a search.

Here's the patent info from 1911 ...
https://www.google.com/patents/US104003 ... CEgQ6AEwBg

An article from Popular Science, Aril, 1918 ...

Top half Bottom half An early collector searching for one, from Popular Electronics, Sept., 1956 ... Thanks,
James.

Wonder who placed that ad in 1956? Interesting that it mentions wanting an 'Improved Monarch'. I had a typical Monarch that came out of an attic in Buffalo, NY in the late 1960's that was stamped 'IM' on the data plate. It had a taper-arm and Concert sound box. Couldn't tell you what the S/N was because I didn't think to write that information down when I was 11 years-old. I've asked a lot of hard-core Victor collectors over the years if they had ever heard of another stamped 'IM' and no one has. Perhaps the first examples with taper-arms were IM's? I've just assumed over the years that IM meant Improved Monarch. This is the first time I've seen another reference to an I(improved) M(onarch), if indeed they are the same.

This is the first time I've seen another reference to an I(improved) M(onarch), if indeed they are the same.

Apparently the Monarch was recalled for some now-unknown reason. The replacement model briefly carried the name "Improved Monarch" to denote that it was not defective. The Improved Monarch was first shipped Jan 30, 1902, according to The Victor Data Book.

Silvertone wrote:

This is the first time I've seen another reference to an I(improved) M(onarch), if indeed they are the same.

Apparently the Monarch was recalled for some now-unknown reason. The replacement model briefly carried the name "Improved Monarch" to denote that it was not defective. The Improved Monarch was first shipped Jan 30, 1902, according to The Victor Data Book.

Thanks. I think I may have had one!

JohnM wrote:Wonder who placed that ad in 1956?

I believe that ad was placed by Oliver Read (one of the co-authors of From Tinfoil to Stereo) who was the publisher of Popular Electronics at the time.

George P.

phonogfp wrote:

JohnM wrote:Wonder who placed that ad in 1956?

I believe that ad was placed by Oliver Read (one of the co-authors of From Tinfoil to Stereo) who was the publisher of Popular Electronics at the time.

George P.

I didn't know that!

phonogfp wrote:

JohnM wrote:Wonder who placed that ad in 1956?

I believe that ad was placed by Oliver Read (one of the co-authors of From Tinfoil to Stereo) who was the publisher of Popular Electronics at the time.

George P.

George, you took the words right out of my month. It was Oliver's ad. I'm trying to think "if" there is a Scott in a collection. I'm drawing a blank on this... .

Well, if Ray Phillips, Bud Whitten, Albert Browse, Fred Long, Neumann Miller, Jim Kintzel, Dick Davis, Elmer Jones, the Ferret brothers, Del Hahn, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm or a couple of other people whose names I cannot recall didn't have one, then somehow it managed to elude the early collectors in the LA/SoCal region. I'm willing to bet it was a one-off like the 12-cylinder Ferris-wheel phonograph I found last summer.

Or a 'two-off', as he's leaning against a very different model in 1918 from the one in the 1913 photos.

ps - PopSci often had weird/confused/wrong info! Example: "the ability to play both disk and flat records" ; umm, the difference being what? Then it says the machine ALSO plays cylinders, but it obviously plays ONLY cylinders. The writer concludes by forgetting he's writing about cylinders, and mentions disk storage.