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Just wanted to tease this post card a little bit! At the end of my post card and paper auctions, I will be listing the "HOLY GRAIL" of real picture post cards! I have a pristine RPPC of a Victor AUXETOPHONE in a private yacht! This is the "real McKoy!" It is postally unused without any damage! I will keep everyone posted when it gets closer to the time for posting this card!

PM me with any questions.

I am a little nervous about showing a scan of the whole card. I do not know how to lay over words like "Do Not Copy" on top of a photograph! I will include in this post just a cropped portion of the card to show the Auxetophone. You can see stairs to the left facing the Auxetophone that lead up and out of the cabin of the yacht. I believe this has the paper mache horn, or is this another material?

Best,
Jeff

Presumably the yacht must have had a generator to provide the electric current for the compressor. I wonder who owned it?

Wow, that horn sure has a high gloss finish. That must be one big boat or one really deaf owner.

That's a nice clear imge.

The name of the yacht could be the
VICTORy at SEA

The owner and guests would have good volume up on deck. It's the poor butler who will need an ear horn.

James.

I can't imagine this beauty being tossed back and forth on the high seas between the sideboard on the right, and the wooden stairs on the left!!! Talk about cabinet dings!!!

I still would like to know what the horn is made out of? Some where in my foggy memory, I thought there might have been a composite "rubber" horn? Otherwise, I assume paper mache?

Jeff

Could it possibly be a "Lineoid" horn? It bears a resemblance to one I've seen, but not as shiny. Then again, maybe they were shiny when new.

Sean

Notice that there is no crank, nor room for one. Did they somehow fit an electric motor? If so it would have been done rather late since there were no electric motors for Victors during the Auxetophone's commercial life.

People are always mystified by the fact that the blower motor is electric but the machine still uses a convention Victor V motor. Odd mix of technologies.

TinfoilPhono wrote:Notice that there is no crank, nor room for one. Did they somehow fit an electric motor? If so it would have been done rather late since there were no electric motors for Victors during the Auxetophone's commercial life.

People are always mystified by the fact that the blower motor is electric but the machine still uses a convention Victor V motor. Odd mix of technologies.

Yes, that's a peculiar detail....

If they had put an extension topside, they could have used it as a foghorn in bad visibility...

Bill

I read somewhere a long time ago that they had a lot of trouble early on figuring out how to use a speed control on the early AC motors and not have them overheat. Edison had a lot of trouble with that too from what I understand and that's why they didn't offer electric motors in those until later on. I'm not sure when sewing machines began to show up with electric motors, but that was probably in the teens as well. Did Victor offer electric motors on the Victrolas before 1912? I've seen that first style Victrola after the L-door machine with electric motors in them, but not earlier. Player pianos has all sorts of trouble using electric motors for the roll drive and that's the main reason why they didn't use them really at all except for AMPICO at the very end. I ran bought a huge ugly art case Edison 10 years ago and that thing didn't even have an electric motor in it. It had one of those automatic spring winders in it. You pressed a button and it wound the thing up. It was never drilled for a crank. But the crank would have been three feet long, it would have taken two people to get it threaded!

I would guess on a yacht, that Auxetophone was used for dancing and they probably moved it up on deck or wherever they needed it for that. Probably not a small space below. Those things are quite loud, I heard one once and remember thinking it was loud more than anything. I think you'd want a regular Victor or something for a normal space. I doubt much thought was given to what the crew thought about having to lug the thing around....

I have an Auxetophone and yes, it is LOUD. Way, way too loud for a small room. It would be literally painful to listen to that in a confined cabin so you may well be right that it was just stored there and moved out to the open for performances.