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My newly acquired Lauzon phonograph has a motor made by A F Meisselbach & Bro, Newark, NJ. I'm wondering if any documentation exists regarding the operation of this motor, which seems to have a mechanism in the center of the spindle to show how much playing time is left. This motor seems to be made prior to the time when they merged with Heineman.

UPDATE: I still haven't unloaded the machine - waiting for some help, but was able to take some pics of the motor board and motor. I'm trying to figure out what the purpose is of the brass spindle arrow which has a square drive that fits over the center of the spindle. I am also wondering if all of the motor parts are here, since someone disassembled the spring barrels prior to me getting it. It seems to be a well made motor with nickel plated spring barrels and four springs, but I am totally unfamiliar with the motor arrangement and center shaft inside the spindle... Has anyone seen one of these or worked on one?

Curt A wrote:My newly acquired Lauzon phonograph has a motor made by A F Meisselbach & Bro, Newark, NJ. I'm wondering if any documentation exists regarding the operation of this motor, which seems to have a mechanism in the center of the spindle to show how much playing time is left. This motor seems to be made prior to the time when they merged with Heineman.

Curt:

Do you have a photo of the motor?

He said he's be posting photos of the entire machine, so maybe we can see the motor too....

Pics posted...

It's actually an auto-stop. I have a Newby and Evans machine with the same setup. In one of the Paul / Fabrizio books, there are photos. Basically, the arrow mechanism sits on top of the record and you point the arrow where you want it to stop. The needle tip hits the arrow and stops the motor.

Sean

Hi Curt,

Check out this link to have your questions about the spindle and "clock hands" answered: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... h&start=10. In my post there, I pointed out the following: "As you demonstrated beautifully in your video, the movable center of the record spindle has a square cross section and is spring-loaded --- it can be moved up and down within the round spindle sheath/sleeve. A record is placed over the spindle, as usual, and then the automatic brake trip "clock hands" are placed over the record and adjusted to contact the reproducer at the end of the selection. The rest of the automatic brake mechanism is under the motorboard. The movable center of the spindle can be lifted and rotated slightly to start the motor. In my limited experience with these automatic stop mechanisms, they are purely mechanical (not electric) on these models, although electric examples may exist on other phonographs".

Hope this helps,
Bob

Sean and Bob... thanks for the info on these clock hands. I may have eventually figured it out, but it had me puzzled. The Bush and Lane phono in the link is another example of great furniture quality from the West Michigan area. Grand Rapids and Holland had many furniture factories and made some of the highest quality furniture in the country.

Lauzon machines had beautiful cabinets and were made in Michigan. It appears that your motor is Meisselbach and in my opinion were good quality motors, in addition to the Heineman motor line.

In addition to Bush & Lane, the Magnola Talking Machine Co., a M. Schulz Piano Co. brand, had their cabinets made in Michigan. From what I researched, the Magnola Talking Machine Co. was incorporated into the Bush & Lane Co. and advertised as their new product in 1927.

I believe both of these also used Heineman motors.