The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This machine appears to be set up for an outdoor concert, possibly a religious one as the gentleman on the right is wearing a dog collar. The horn is very large and there is a Pathé disc in the foreground, but the soundbox/reproducer has been removed and the photo is too indistinct for me to to confirm that this is a Pathé machine.

Judging from the back bracket and tone arm I would say it is a Pathé machine.

You gotta love the great floor stand for the horn...

I think it's a Pathé machine. In the foreground, you can see a record in a Pathé sleeve.
Harvey Kravitz

On close examination, the machine looks very odd indeed.

. The case seems far too small for any machine I would recognize: there does not seem to be room for any motor. The box sitting on the turntable may or may not hold a reproducer, etc.


. There seems to be a cord or cable attached to the back, leading off into parts unknown.

I wish we could decipher the text on the placard...

Bill

The first line of the poster seems to be the same as the name on the wall at left, E. R. Noble & Sons, a fact which suggests a commercial display rather than a religious event. The next line on the poster could possibly be Popular Music. The address on the wall appears to be George Street, Altington; there are places so named in both Kent and Lincolnshire, England, and one in Washington State, U.S.A.

Is it possible that the machine is driven by compressed air, supplied through the flexible tube (which looks too stout for an electrical cable) from a separate compressor hidden behind the rockery on the left? I think I can see a short stretch of white tubing peeping out above the shrubs on the left-hand side, just below the ornamental section of the iron railing, and it seems to be attached to something there.

Oliver Mundy.

The horn is wicked. Can't say I've ever seen one that size

stephen

In my opinion, it is like a Pathé Model F. With a "do it yourself", for the horn. Because the model F is one of the smallest Pathé Disc Machine.

Menophanes wrote:
Is it possible that the machine is driven by compressed air, supplied through the flexible tube (which looks too stout for an electrical cable) from a separate compressor hidden behind the rockery on the left? I think I can see a short stretch of white tubing peeping out above the shrubs on the left-hand side, just below the ornamental section of the iron railing, and it seems to be attached to something there.

Oliver Mundy.

If you are referring to the bright white mark, I believe that may be a scratch or defect on the photo...

Otherwise, the idea of a compressed-air motor seems plausible.

Bill