The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is the first phonograph I bought (it's only been a couple of months), a Model 175 Pathé upright. From what I can determine, the estimated year of manufacture is 1919.

The only thing I've done is add some fabric to the grill (not pictured here). I'm almost certain the case was made by Brunswick, as it is almost identical to case design I found in a Brunswick catalog, and I read somewhere that Brunswick was known to make cabinets for Pathé, plus they had this promotional partnership with Brunswick machines and Pathé records.

I can't determine the maker of the reproducer. There is also some sort of auto-stop mechanism that I can't figure out....there may be a missing piece for all I know.

I haven't taken a look "under the hood" yet, but be sure to take pictures when I do.

Eric

More pictures:

The automatic brake on your machine looks like it should have a bent rod/arm attached the the tonearm, which would trigger the mechanism when it reached the end of a record. The tonearm part or the brake mechanism would be set for the size record you are playing and when the tonearm swiveled to the center of the record the arm would activate the brake... I'm not positive that it works like that, since I haven't seen one exactly like yours, but it looks like it should operate in some similar fashion...

Thanks for the explanation Curt. It makes sense now that something would extend down from the tone arm an move between the tabs. I imagine when the tab on left was moved, it tripped the brake. From the action that I've observed, the brake would need to be manually reset each time, either by hand or by moving the tone arm back to the start position.

Eric

That cabinet is so much prettier than most of the other American-made Pathé models. Most of them are just so plain and uninspiring to look at. Being made by Brunswick is a pretty good guess.

VintageTechnologies wrote:That cabinet is so much prettier than most of the other American-made Pathé models. Most of them are just so plain and uninspiring to look at. Being made by Brunswick is a pretty good guess.

Thanks, I think so too!

I like the Queen Anne legs and carvings. As you mentioned, most of other cases I've seen on the American Pathé uprights are pretty boxy with no curves at all...kind of visually blah.

Eric

E-M-H wrote:

VintageTechnologies wrote:That cabinet is so much prettier than most of the other American-made Pathé models. Most of them are just so plain and uninspiring to look at. Being made by Brunswick is a pretty good guess.

Thanks, I think so too!

I like the Queen Anne legs and carvings. As you mentioned, most of other cases I've seen on the American Pathé uprights are pretty boxy with no curves at all...kind of visually blah.

Eric

I went through the informative and extensive online book I found for Brunswick by R.J. Wakeman at http://www.antiquephono.org/brunswick-p ... j-wakeman/

IMHO, my case most closely resembles the Model 120 (page 187) and Model 217 (page 185)cases (taking the lid from the Model 100/125 on page 192).

Did I say I love researching this stuff?

Eric

There is a vintage Pathé ad shown in Ron Dethlefson's book on Pathé showing opera star Claudia Muzio leaning over this model listening to one of her records. Ron has a very common Model VII Pathé in his home, but with some great records. He played one of his Pathé's and I swear it was one of the best sounding records I have ever heard!

marcapra wrote:There is a vintage Pathé ad shown in Ron Dethlefson's book on Pathé showing opera star Claudia Muzio leaning over this model listening to one of her records. Ron has a very common Model VII Pathé in his home, but with some great records. He played one of his Pathé's and I swear it was one of the best sounding records I have ever heard!

Thanks for the information about the image. I'll definitely have to check it out. I have the Pathé sapphire reproducer that came with the machine, but I still need to get a few Pathé discs to try it out.

Eric