The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

http://youtu.be/xg9tYj563LU

I said I would post a video of what this Lumiere 460 looks & sounds like when I was through working on it. (I wrote about it in another thread, about being had by this Dutch dealer as the gramophone was a total wreck when I received it and had been described as "in overall good condition" with fake photos).
It took some time (about a year)! All the fungus came off, the panels are glued back together, two new springs in the motor. In the last year I’ve discovered bamboo needles. They’re perfect for this machine as it has a gadget that adjusts the needle weight / down to nothing if you want! Also they do not wear records at all, as far as I’ve been told they only clean the tracks. As for the reproduction there is a slight loss in the high register but also there’s less noise from the needle.
I still haven’t done anything to the actual diaphragm / that’ll have to be a second phase project. It sounds pretty ok but is a bit bent and still has a few tears in the paper.
Looking at the video I made, I realize that I was more fascinated by the actual design of this machine than my own restoration process…

That's a beautiful machine, great job! I love the sound, can't believe that there are still some tears in the diaphragm. It must have sounded even better when new. Congratulations!

Andreas

These are just cool machines. Thanks for the post.

Clay

Very nice machine and video! Thanks for including some closeups of the mechanism.
It looks like your bamboo needle is homemade. I've been making mine for several years now and use them almost exclusively.
I'm sure your machine will be a daily player! Thanks again.
Bob

Yes this is now the daily player! The bamboo needles I bought from a young guy who started making them, I get aprox. 20 plays per needle, next time I hope to start making them myself if I figure out how, maybe there's a thread, haven't checked yet...

When the video began I thought you were hinting that the pleated diaphragm had been replaced with a palm leaf!

That sounds quite lovely. And it seems to play electricals quite well indeed. I read somewhere that the reason HMV discontinued the Lumiere Diaphragm machines was because they couldn't deal with the increased volume of the electics, but this seems fine. HMV reworked the floor model Lumiere as one of their first " New His Master's Voice" gramophones in 1925 by adding a horn where the record storage had been in the Lumiere.

Jim

I left the images of palmleaves in the video for their idea. Whilst reading about the 460 (in THE TALKING MACHINE REVIEW of June 1975 by E. Bayly) I came upon an in-depth text about the actual invention of the diaphragm and it seems possible, I saw these fans as a child in Spain – and they were made out of (smaller) palmleaves – the pleated kind. Here’s a couple of snapshots from that article with pictures of the fans, although he mentions paper ones in the article…
If Louis Lumiere got the idea from the fans, I think the idea for the fans came from the palmleaves. I’m going to build a giant diaphragm from palmleaves, get back with a video if it turns out interesting!

About the Lumiere and electrical recordings Bayly says in his article (what led to its demise) “perhaps it was electrical recording but that is less likely for the Lumiere diaphragm would have coped with electrical recordings… whatever the reason there was a marked lack of enthusiasm from the majority of gramophone purchasers" maybe it was too way out, or looked too fragile? It's definitely the Wasa ship of HMV...