The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

found this thing laying on the side of the road not one block from my house! everything works, however the reproducer is missing! So i need help with finding out what this thing is and if i can get a reproducer ( not in a herry for a reproducer but I still want it). The gram is a "Vocanola" and has no maker markings and the only thing that i can find on the cabinet is a serial number. the only thing online that I can find is that Aloian had a series of gramophones that start with "Voc", so it could be made by them. anyone who finds out who made it will get 1 imaginary cookie

Vocanola is not even listed on 263 Machines and Their Makers: 1916 - 1923 By R.J. Wakeman. Maybe it's from Canada ??

That's some pretty nice looking oak veneer for a machine found by the side of the road !

The other machines you mentioned as "nearest matches" on the name are "Aeolian" (piano makers in New York), who produced a line of talking machines under the "Vocalion" label.


The cabinet silhouette looks very similar to an oak Silvertone that I have, especially the lid and front-leg contours.

These small volume brands used standardized metal parts. You need a tone arm AND a Soundbox. It is entirely probable that there were Heineman made. Most of the normal parts suppliers could help you out.

Why can't I be lucky enough to find a machine as good as this for free? It's quite good looking. Be careful about cleaning it and don't remove the finish. Keep researching it and you will find the reproducer. Saving these machines becomes quite a passion for some of us. Once you hear it play a great jazz record, you will be hooked. Don't expect to get rich if you try and sell it. Think of it as a time machine and you are it's temporary custodian. I know an expert on most antique phonographs. I will show him your pictures and try to find out more. You saving it from the trash was fate.

Congrats on the roadside find!!! Let me know the diameter of the tone arm base and the distance from the center of the base to the spindle and I might have a replacement arm and reproducer for you.
Ken Brekke

Don't expect me to sell this thing, it is my first gramophone and I don't expect to sell this till' i'm old (60-80 ish). and on the subject of the tone arm it is 8.25" from the middle of the tone arm base to the spindle.

Welcome to this forum. There are some great collectors here to help you out. I hope to have some time this weekend to dig through my parts for you. What is the diameter of the base where it meets the case?

thank you for welcoming me , it is a 2.75" base bracket with a triangle screw pattern 2.05" across from each other.

Your Vocanola was made by the The Globe Furniture & Carpet Company, 411 E. Tuscarawas Street, Canton, Ohio.

The ad below is from The Furniture Worker, Vol. 34, No. 12, December 1917, p. 488. Thank you for the cookie ...