The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have never seen anything like it so I had to post a link.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Glass-G ... SwxN5WZZB5

I bet that glass is incredibly rare...

I have seen a number of those, but never one whose electrodes were in such fine condition. All that I have seen were offered at similar prices, so while that is a lot of money, it may represent the going price.

Despite what the seller claims, that's a pretty small Grenet cell.

George P.

And as attractive as Grenet cells are, they are not really appropriate for Edison (or Columbia) electric phonographs.

Most everyone is familiar with the famous photograph of an exhausted Edison with the improved phonograph in 1888 -- but that was a 'spectacle' Class M, in a laboratory setting. By the time the Class M was leased to the public, and later offered for sale, Edison had bought the rights to the Lalande cell and was supplying Edison-Lalande batteries for his phonographs. (Scott Colgrove wrote a terrific article about batteries in the June 2005 issue of The Sound Box.)

A couple of friends in France have told me that Grenet cells were still commonly used in school chemistry classes as late as the 1960s/1970s. A lot of cells that turn up today are unused old stock from academic storage.

All that said, most everyone I know with a Class M has a Grenet cell to match up with the famous photograph.

Hello,
These batteries seem to turn up often at the Phonograph shows. here is a picture taken at the last Wayne show.
Pete

As Rene has stated, these cells were still around in large numbers not so long ago.
I went to a school in England 1968 to 1973 where we used these in various sizes (up to about a foot) during Physics lessons.
Alistair.

As shown

Shown here is a typical battery (four 2.6V cells wired in parallel) used during the Class M era. This is an Edison type V, able to power a Class M for up to 75 hours. It was designed for use with marine engines, slot machines and phonographs. Shown for comparison is a 10" Grenet cell and Edison cylinder record.

That's a magnificent set of V cells, and the only complete set I have heard of. The other set that was marketed for phonograph use was the set of 4 S cells. These were also sold for use with battery fans.

A battery of 4 cells, filled with caustic chemicals, is very heavy. And inconvenient. But that's what it took to run a phonograph for a decent amount of time. A Grenet cell would have had a very short operating life. I have to believe that Edison had dozens on hand when he was working on the Class M.