The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Does any one know who marketed Climax Phonographs and the double sided Climax records? I know the records were pressed by Columbia from about 1912-16. I just got an internal horn Climax model and some double sided records.
Harvey Kravitz

Phonofreak wrote:Does any one know who marketed Climax Phonographs and the double sided Climax records? I know the records were pressed by Columbia from about 1912-16. I just got an internal horn Climax model and some double sided records.
Harvey Kravitz

This is all I found. http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/r ... /detail/99

Harvey -

Does it look like this ?

(The reproducer and "wrapped / butt-soldered" tapering tube look those on my 1912-ish Columbia "Favorite", with horn-doors.)

Can't help with the "who marketed this" question... I loaned my Columbia Record Labels book to a friend...

Didn't Columbia ( or one of the other biggies ) eventually acquire Burt /Globe / early Climax ?

The 1901/02 Climax and the 1909-1916 Climax are entirely different animals. All this is explained in The Talking Machine Compendium, as well as Discovering Antique Phonographs, and various other books dealing with record labels. One excellent book is Sutton/Nauck's American Record Labels and Companies, 1891-1943. This source states that no distributor or retailer had yet been identified for the Climax Double-Disk Record and machines (the book/CD was published in 2000). An external-horn model was available as well.

George P.

Below is a video from my YouTube channel featuring the only Climax phonograph in my collection. Some of the Climax phonographs used Hawthorne & Sheble parts and mine is no exception. It plays sweet.

Doug

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUyCfiBZh4M[/youtube]

Frank, That's the internal horn Climax that I have. It was a buy it now on ebay. I got it real cheap. I'll have to look through my Columbia disk label book. In all my years of collecting, I have never seen an internal horn Climax, only the outside horn models. What I like about this machine is the construction. This is solid wood, probably bass or poplar with a very light mahogany finish. There is no veneer at all that's typical of Columbia machines. The motor board has mitered joints that is uncommon with Colombia machines. It is a well made solid machine.
Harvey Kravitz

I wonder if this same cabinet was employed under any external-horn machines ?

I retrieved my copy of "Note the Notes", the Columbia record-label book by Sherman and Nauck, c. 1998, and they show a "Climax Double-Disk Record" label, "circa 1909-1916" on p. 43, under "Client / Subsidiary Labels", but I did not find any additional information. There don't seem to be any clues on the record label either...

I don't recall coming across the label in my 30+ years of casual collecting... NE Penna / mid-Atlantic region.


Harvey, how does the build quality of the cabinet compare to other Columbia-made "client" or "premium" machines ?

FellowCollector wrote:Below is a video from my YouTube channel featuring the only Climax phonograph in my collection. Some of the Climax phonographs used Hawthorne & Sheble parts and mine is no exception. It plays sweet.

Doug

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUyCfiBZh4M[/youtube]

Very nice... looks like the same decal as on the internal-horn machine...

Frank, I think the cabinet construction of this machine is superior to the premium and client machines. In my last post, I stated the cabinet was solid wood with no veneer. The wood is a lower grade like poplar or bass, but no veneer. It was finished in a light mahogany color. The premium machines and other clients used veneer on the motor board and other places and usually needs lots of help. I haven't done anything yet, but I think it has a double spring motor. So far, I have only seen 2 of these machines, mine and yours.
Harvey Kravitz