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This summer I found myself in the unlikely position of having THREE early Echophones here. Two are mine, and I was restoring the third for a friend. With only 25-30 of these machines known, I was conscious of the odds against having three of them in one place.

But the reason I'm posting these photos is to share something I learned about Echophones. For many years, I have been aware of only two production versions of this rare machine. The early version has a wooden mandrel. The slightly later version has a mandrel made of gutta percha. Everything else appears the same between production models (excepting the "Metaphone" of which one example is known, and a pre-production Echophone with a leveling device). But while restoring my friend's Echophone - - which I presumed was identical to my later version - - I discovered a subtle difference.

Here's a photo of the three Echophones currently here. They run from left to right: early, slightly later, and latest. Now here's a photo of the two later examples with gutta percha mandrels. Can you spot the difference? (It's not the coil springs - - they're replacements on both and period images show different sizes as well.) You can click twice on the images to enlarge them. The winner get a four-leaf clover!

George P.

Easy

Starkton wrote:Easy

If it is the posts.....How do we know that was just not a QC issue on the assembly line ?.
The only other difference I can see is.....one is yours and the other is not..... .

That's pretty good, Stephan, but I didn't count that flat on the pedestal. I wasn't sure if the flats were done only as necessary. There's something else!

George P.

The screw to fix the lid was also replaced by an eyelet on what I guess is the "latest" machine.

Starkton wrote:Easy

This is the only difference that I could find, too. It appears that the lids may be different sizes or internal dimensions?

Fran

It appears the governor springs are going through the friction disc on one and not the other.

Starkton wrote:The screw to fix the lid was also replaced by an eyelet on what I guess is the "latest" machine.

BINGO!



Next time I post something like this, I'd better make sure it's the middle of the night in Germany!

George P.

Starkton wrote:The screw to fix the lid was also replaced by an eyelet on what I guess is the "latest" machine.

I have to say, I think the two above "finds" are related?

fran

gramophone78 wrote:It appears the governor springs are going through the friction disc on one and not the other.

Actually, the governor springs go through both flanges on all three machines. It doesn't show very well in the second photo with the machine on the left, but they're all alike in that respect.

George P.