The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here's a surprise - a phono design patent, assigned 50/50 to Edison and Columbia

...And the sound doors over the horn would insure that neither party could use it!

This is interesting. Mertz designed the flat-topped prototype Victrola cabinet sometimes illustrated as "Victrola Second Style" in later company literature. He must have been well aware of Victor's patent for sound-controlling doors.

This patent almost looks as though it were meant as payment/restitution/damages of some sort from Victor to Columbia and Edison. I can think of no other reason it would exist.

Nor can I think of any situation where Victor would have "owed" something like this to Edison and Columbia. I'm stumped.

George P.

While the doors are shown in the patent diagram, they are not discussed in the claims. It is hard to tell from the diagrams if those doors are actually sound control doors, or if they are merely access doors. That may not matter since it is the claims section which describe in detail the substance of a patent. The main substance of this patent seems to be the pivotal nature of the design which involves record installation and retrieval in a phonographic system.

Also, notable is that the original assignment was to three entities.