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I have an Edison Home phonograph that plays 2 and 4 minute cylinders. It plays the hard 4 min Blue Amberol cylinders well, but it damages the softer hard rubber early 2 min cylinders when playing them and the Edison Amberol Cylinder (not BLUE) that come in the green cylinder tube. What gives and what should I do? The reproducer appears to be original to the machine dos not appear to be damaged in any way.

It's important to use the proper reproducer for 2-minute cylinders and the proper reproducer for 4-minute cylinders. Don't play any more cylinder records until you read this article:

http://www.antiquephono.org/basic-antiq ... onal-tips/

Scroll about half-way down and you'll come to the cylinder & reproducer section.

George P.

It is apparent that I have the unmarked Model C reproducer, which plays 4 min celluloid cylinders. I did not realize this. I will stick to playing the 2 min cylinders on my earlier Standard machine which plays 2 min cylinders only. Thank you!

orpington wrote:It is apparent that I have the unmarked Model C reproducer, which plays 4 min celluloid cylinders. I did not realize this. I will stick to playing the 2 min cylinders on my earlier Standard machine which plays 2 min cylinders only. Thank you!

Unmarked Model C? Normally an Edison Model C, plays two minute cylinders and it's marked as such. Do you have a Diamond C in something like an Amberola 30 or 50? That would definitely only play 4 minute celluloid records.

I think, from the attached link, it might be a Diamond B?

If the machine in question is the Home you PMd me about earlier, it's most likely a Diamond B. As you read in the article, the Diamond B is designed to play 4 minute celluloid only. As you observed, it will instantly damage 4 minute wax and two minute wax cylinders.

If you can post a photo of your machine, we can better help. Posting photos on this form is very, very easy. Just click on the "Choose File" button below the text box, and go to the image you want and click on it. Then click on the "Add the file" button to the right of the "Choose File" button you already used. Once it's loaded, just hit "Submit" as you do with any post.

George P.

I will try and take photos and post them. I am not the best at figuring out how to get photos onto a computer.

I assume these reproducers are interchangeable? It seems that this plays the BLUE Amberols only, and not even the black 4 min cylinders.

I have to leave for work in 5 minutes, but will post photos (hopefully) later today.

Here is a picture of the phonograph in question, with cygnet horn, and a picture of the reproducer.

That's a Diamond B reproducer and will destroy anything other than a Blue Amberol, 4 min. cylinder.

You have an early version Edison Home model B Phonograph with banner decal and 2/4 minute conversion added with Diamond model B reproducer mounted on a horizontal carriage and cygnet horn. A nice setup for playing 2 minute Indestructible cylinders and 4 minute celluloid [indestructible] (Edison Blue Amberol, Albany Indestructible, Lakeside, US Everlasting) cylinders only. Any of your wax 2 minute or 4 minute cylinders will be destroyed by the diamond stylus. A reducer ring with a model C, model H or model K reproducer will enable using the horizontal carriage to play your wax cylinders.

You can see a horizontal carriage reducer ring utilized with a model H reproducer on one of my Edison phonographs about 4 minutes into this video from my YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSC-l5Fl ... detailpage

Doug