The Seashell Gramophone

[snallast]

I once promised I´d post a video of this unusual gramophone actually playing. Well here goes, hope you enjoy it! : https://youtu.be/63QaTJDG4Ro

I can add - something I knew nothing about the last time - that it seems of german origin, and the dating 1910 - 1914 seems accurate, see the following post on the german forum: http://grammophon-platten.de/e107_plugi ... ?35006#top

Snal

[Curt A]

I love funky phonographs and this is definitely one... sounds great!

[tinovanderzwan]

I once promised I´d post a video of this unusual gramophone actually playing. Well here goes, hope you enjoy it! : https://youtu.be/63QaTJDG4Ro

I can add - something I knew nothing about the last time - that it seems of german origin, and the dating 1910 - 1914 seems accurate, see the following post on the german forum: http://grammophon-platten.de/e107_plugi ... ?35006#top

Snal

what a nice machine! its very reminiscent of the german lindstrom hornless machines your machine's case seems to bee manly made out of door panels maby an off market lindstrom?

[TinfoilPhono]

Wow, that's amazing! I want one.............

[snallast]

Yes Timo - maybe, they really do look quite a bit alike - even the brake seems to be the same, but like you could see in the german forum - I add a picture from there - this one seems even closer, the sensational "Phono-Triton" - the mechanism is the same - even the box if you rebuild it a little. It´s hard to know for sure. One thing is sure - leaving the shell as unprotected as it is in the german ad would surely render it a short life span. Maybe someone simply rebuilt the machine to protect the shell/loudspeaker - thereby also adding an acoustic enhancer - and that is the reason this machine seems to be the only survivor? Maybe it´s a "later-along-the-line" Phono-Triton?

Snal

[Odeon]

The "Phono-Triton" had been patented (and most likely produced) by Hermann Maassen - the owner of the Austrian Branch of Odeon in Vienna. But - Austria hadn´t a big Phonoindustry by their own at this time, a lot of the parts of a gramophone (tone arm, soundbox, even motors) had been imported from Germany. So there is a good chance, that Maassen also used parts for his Gramophones from Lindström (Berlin), one of the major manufacturer and distributor of Gramophone parts in Germany and Europe at this time.

Thanks for showing this rare machine, Snal! Here and there...

Kind regards

[Marco Gilardetti]

Thanks for posting! Fantasy really had no limits when it comes to gramophones!

It's always hard to judge the sound quality of a gramophone by a videoclip, however it seems to me that the sound is thin, as it might be expected from such a narrow aperture of the "horn". But quite obviously the attractive side of this gramophone was the novelty shell horn, and not sound accuracy.

Fortunately the shell horn didn't really break through, otherwise today we would be mourning for the extinction of this and that submarine creature.

[CarlosV]

This gramophone was designed to play Charles Trenet's "La Mer"

[tinovanderzwan]

Yes Timo - maybe, they really do look quite a bit alike - even the brake seems to be the same, but like you could see in the german forum - I add a picture from there - this one seems even closer, the sensational "Phono-Triton" - the mechanism is the same - even the box if you rebuild it a little. It´s hard to know for sure. One thing is sure - leaving the shell as unprotected as it is in the german ad would surely render it a short life span. Maybe someone simply rebuilt the machine to protect the shell/loudspeaker - thereby also adding an acoustic enhancer - and that is the reason this machine seems to be the only survivor? Maybe it´s a "later-along-the-line" Phono-Triton?

Snal

hi snal reading in this thread that there's a odeon link to triton we can be pretty sure that we are also talking about lindstrom
odeon, honochord, polyphone, vox, anker, favorite, beka and parlophone are all linked to lindstrom many had identical parts like f.i. the brakes and sometimes identical models for instance the famous klingsor machines there where several models by parlophone with the same cabinet yet without the strings the famous odeon bauhaus portable was also made by parlophone
now.. lindstrom din't own most of these companies but there was a very strong bond between them and lindstrom
why make it yourself when somebody cam make it for you for less

tino

[Odeon]

At this time the Austrian Odeon (Hermann Maassen) had no connection to the German Lindström. But, as said, it is likely that Hermann Maassen in Vienna bought parts from Germany. It is even a little bit more complex: More exclusive cabinets often hadn´t been made by the "Big Names" like Lindström, Polyphon and so on by themself, but ordered from specialized companys. Often these cabinetmakers were located in Thuringia or Saxonia (Germany).

By the way - Vox, Polyphon(e) and Anker had never a connection to Lindström; Homocord not before 1925 via Bristish Columbia.