The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

My brother was in Walden, CO recently and sent me some "old- town" photos. One of them is this phono with what looks like a rubber-covered
mandrel or maybe the machine was used as a play-doh lathe? I'm sure many of you have seen such but I'd like to know something about it. Thanks- Bill

To me that looks like a broken Gold Moulded record on a regular mandrel...

Ah, now I see that. I thought it looked like a bottle-shaped record! I'm such a dummy- sorry 'bout that.

the brittish edison bell co did have a machine with a rubber mandrel the edison bell comercial phonograph had a removable rubber mandrel when removed the machine could play bell & tainter type cardboard cylinders
correct me if i'm wrong about the date i think the machine was from 1893 and was used in the original first draft of francis baraud's painting his masters voice

tino

tinovanderzwan wrote: the edison bell comercial phonograph had a removable rubber mandrel when removed the machine could play bell & tainter type cardboard cylinders
correct me if i'm wrong about the date i think the machine was from 1893 and was used in the original first draft of francis baraud's painting his masters voice

tino

The Edison Bell Commercial Phonograph was offered for a little over a decade (from 1893 until around 1905) and it was indeed the original machine from which Nipper listened to "His Master's Voice."

It could not play Bell & Tainter cylinders, but was capable of playing even smaller diameter mailing cylinders in addition to regular diameter cylinder records.

Every so often, a coin-operated machine will turn up with a rubber mandrel. I've seen one or two Edison "H" coin-ops with them. The original purpose was to lessen the possibility of cylinders breaking during cold weather due to the vastly different rates of shrinkage & expansion between metal mandrels and wax records. The rubber was a closer approximation to wax. This was particularly troublesome if a relatively warm wax cylinder was placed on a cold metal mandrel, which would have been a common occurrence when records were being changed on coin-operated machines.

George P.

My Edison H has a rubber mandrel, or more accurately, a rubber-coated brass mandrel. The purpose was exactly what George explains -- avoiding cracked records due to temperature changes.