The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I just returned from a 16-day, 3400 mile road trip to Florida and back. Ostensibly, the main purpose of the trip was to visit Barbie's parents at their new place in Cape Coral, but we made stops along the way at Charleston, West Virginia, Asheville, North Carolina, Amelia Island, Florida, Vero Beach, FL, Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, and Winchester, Virginia. A wonderful trip...and somehow antique phonographs managed to creep into our...ummm...MY plans!

If you look at a map of Florida, you'll see that Cape Coral lies only a few miles from Ft. Myers, and the latter is the location of the winter estates of Henry Ford and some guy named Edison. I've visited the museum two or three times in the past, but the last time was over 15 years ago. On that occasion, I spoke to a docent about some of the inaccurate signage that accompanied the excellent collection of Edison Phonographs there. His response (which I've shared before) was, "The public doesn't know the difference."

I'm very happy to report that things have changed at Edison & Ford. I was wandering through the museum, admiring some of the spectacular machines in the collection, and noticed that the signage was accurate for the most part. Still, I noticed a few problems; some minor but others way off. And there was one item that had nothing to do with Edison (a Wade fiber needle cutter) that was displayed with a tinfoil Phonograph, and described as being a "Reed Sharpener" for the first tinfoil machines - - before the embossing points were made of steel!

Naturally, my first impulse was to try to help, but I had been down that road before. Besides, I was on vacation. And no one likes some wise-guy passing himself off as an expert and expecting everyone to believe him. As I continued strolling around, a docent struck up a conversation with me. Well, inside of 5 minutes, he had wheedled the whole story out of me, and insisted I talk with Jim - a 90 year old docent who has been at Edison & Fort for 27 years. Jim took me on a quick tour through the museum (I had already seen everything, but Jim added some background details on some items), and when I politely pointed out a few inaccuracies, he introduced me to a woman a step up in authority (I don't remember her name ). This woman gave me the business cards of the Chief Curator and a Registrar, encouraging me to contact them. I called the numbers on the cards within minutes, but heard only answering machines. I left messages, and a half hour later I left for Cape Coral.

On my way, the cell phone rang and it was a Registrar, asking if I could return the following day, accompany him through the museum, and point out any inaccurate signage. Things had indeed changed at Edison & Ford.

The following day I met with the Registrar and we went through the museum, reading all the signage. I found a few more things I had missed, and the Registrar took notes. A few machines were equipped with the wrong horns, and I pointed this out as well. An hour later, he assured me that they would be making the changes I recommended. I hope so, but whether they do or not, I encourage all antique phonograph collectors to visit the Edison & Ford Winter Estates when they have a chance. The collection of phonographs is quite good and the displays are well done.

I have included photos below of a couple of machines that might be of interest. There are many, many others I could have included. (One spectacular example will be the topic of my article in the December issue of The Antique Phonograph.)

The first is one of Thomas Edison's personal phonographs he used for auditioning records. This machine is pictured on page 21 of George Frow's The Edison Disc Phonographs. As Edison's hearing became progressively worse, he was forced to rely on bone conduction to hear recordings. By biting into the crate in which the mechanism is housed, the sound could travel directly to Edison's inner ear, bypassing his evidently impaired middle ear. Note that this machine is equipped with an Edisonic reproducer. This machine is inside a plexiglass cube, so I was unable to avoid some reflection. The next photo is one of my favorites in the collection. This 1899 Stereophone combines a stereoptican card machine with an Eagle Graphophone mounted BACKWARD in the cabinet. Again, I encourage any collectors to view this collection in Ft. Myers, Florida if the opportunity presents itself.

Best to all,

George P.

Thanks for the report, George! I have been there several times but not for at least 12 years. Sounds like they've made some improvements to the displays. And it's always rewarding to hear that a museum is open to correcting mistaken signage.

It sounds like a wonderful trip, George, and gives me a prod to take a day or two to drive over to the other side the of the state to take in those museums.

Clay

George,

That's a wonderful picture of the "old mans" auditioning Diamond Disc Phonograph. How cool that it is so nicely preserved!

I would love to sink my teeth into it once just to experience what he did. I wonder what the "key pounder", Sergei Rachmaninoff, must have felt like?

I hope the Registrar takes your advice to heart and makes the appropriate changes.

Best,
Fran

Hi George- Sounds like a great trip. What did you do in Winchester, VA?? I'm only about 45 minutes east of there. I would have loved to have you and Barbie visit Carol and I.


In 1977 the Library of Congress had a display celebrating the 100th anniversary of the phonograph. At that time I was in my 1st year of collecting, and a fellow collector and I couldn't wait to go visit the display. Even at that point in my collecting I had garnered a little knowledge--enough to know that the Banner Front Standard Model A (1898 patent plate) wasn't Edison's "1893 First mass-produced phonograph". After looking around awhile and seeing a couple other minor mistakes, a gentleman approached us and asked what we thought of the display. We were very positive about it, but also pointed out the few errors we noticed. Turns out that the man was the Smithsonian curator for that display. He wrote down our comments and said he'd have to look into it. When we visited again a few days later, the mistakes we had pointed out had been corrected, other info that we hadn't commented on (probably we didn't know) had been changed AND-- They had added a couple of machines that we had not seen in the previous visit.

It's always nice when people are open mined and are willing to continue learning.

Brad Abell

Great story George. My wife Nancy and myself visited the Site a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Here are several pictures of the many that I also took. At the time of my visit, they were playing a recording of the History Channel piece about Edison that featured Charley Hummel in the visitors center. Are they still playing that Film? As it happened, the Old Man himself was there that day and I was able to take a picture with him . I strongly recommend a visit to this site, as well as the Ringling Circus museum in Sarasota.

Bill Feiner

outune wrote:Hi George- Sounds like a great trip. What did you do in Winchester, VA?? I'm only about 45 minutes east of there. I would have loved to have you and Barbie visit Carol and I.
Brad Abell

Brad,

The only reason we stayed in Winchester was that it was on the way home and located about where we'd be ready to spend the night. However, we stayed at the George Washington Hotel - - a grand place that was built in 1924. It's located in what's called "Old Winchester," and there was a neat outdoor restaurant just up the street. Anyway, the hotel room was huge, with a King Size bed, couch, desk/chair, and plenty of extra space. Everything was fresh, the carpeting looked new, and the bathroom was first class. All this for $107 for the night! Admittedly, that included a teacher discount, but even at $120 it would have been a good deal. I'm used to paying more than that for a Holiday Inn Express at Union!

I'm sorry we weren't able to visit you and Carol. Barbie will tolerate antique phonographs when there are nice people involved (especially long-suffering wives!). If you're ever in the western New York State region, be sure to let us know.

George P.

StL Bill wrote:Great story George. My wife Nancy and myself visited the Site a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Here are several pictures of the many that I also took. At the time of my visit, they were playing a recording of the History Channel piece about Edison that featured Charley Hummel in the visitors center. Are they still playing that Film? As it happened, the Old Man himself was there that day and I was able to take a picture with him . I strongly recommend a visit to this site, as well as the Ringling Circus museum in Sarasota.

Bill Feiner

Hey Bill!

You've included a photo of the machine I'm planning to write about! Just don't give anything away...!

Yes, they're still playing the History Channel video. It's a good one for those who aren't too familiar with Edison and his inventions. And the "Old Man" was standing in the same spot when I was there - - I don't think the guy does a thing anymore!

Best,
George

It seems that they have added a few things at the museum and moved some others around. I haven't been there since October of 2010... I'm due for a visit..

George, You mean the wedding gift machine to his daughter? I noticed that the missing part of the reproducer is still stuck in the accompanied horn (not pictured)...the last time that I was there. That is quite a machine.

Another awesome machine Is the "Taft" Idelia in the Lightner Museum in St. Aug, Florida. That one is one of my favorite phonographs. I wonder how they ever acquired it, That machine probably belongs in the Smithsonian since a sitting U.S. President was involved. At least its in a museum for everyone to see albeit, it probably has never played in 100 years and has the wrong horn, and the cover is not on display.

)

Tony K.

I was there in 2004.I was staying with a friend and her husband in Homosassa,FL.We drove down there.She knew I loved phonographs.What a treat!! I even got to talk to the "Old Man"himself!It was,of course,an actor impersonating him.edisonplayer