The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

In my area in eastern Nebraska we’re dealing with historic flooding. While the majority machines are safe, my oak VV-XI and Edison C-19 and may have some potential water damage.

So I was wondering has anyone lost machines due to floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires etc?

In 1986 we were living in Gowanda, NY, and on August 1st of that year, the village was flooded for the first time since 1928. We had about 5 feet of water in our basement, and I had 17 phonographs down there in various states of repair. (Fortunately, nothing I had planned to keep!)

Our insurance company asked me for a valuation of my loss, which I wrote up very conservatively. Much to my surprise, they paid it fully. I was thankful for that, and for not having water in the 1st floor. I'll never live in a flood plain again.

George P.

Does stupidity count?

Jerry B.

Jerry B. wrote:Does stupidity count?

Jerry B.

Is it natural?

I had an H-19 that sat in half a foot of water when there was a flood in the house due to broken plumbing. The legs were down to bare wood when it was finally removed from the house. The insurance company hired and paid a restoration company to take care of it. They did an excellent job, actually caring about how it should look and what materials should be used. The restoration costs far exceeded the value of the machine, but that was the insurance company's problem not mine.

This wasn't a machine but as its only just happened I'll include it. Over the past week we've had strong hurricane winds here. Outside my house the wind has just tossed a covered and 'weighted' pile of 78's in all directions. The Java Jive went jiving down the road ending up surprisingly unbroken but the edge shows signs of a very stoney dance floor.

jamiegramo wrote:This wasn't a machine but as its only just happened I'll include it. Over the past week we've had strong hurricane winds here. Outside my house the wind has just tossed a covered and 'weighted' pile of 78's in all directions. The Java Jive went jiving down the road ending up surprisingly unbroken but the edge shows signs of a very stoney dance floor.

Yikes! Atleast it stayed in one piece.

Well, the other day we came back. And thankfully none of my machines or records got ruined. The water stayed out of the room the C-19 and XI were in. But we will be needing a new carpet.

Wow, that's great. At least, if your Victrola & your Edison aren't soaked, then you can get a bunch of people together and foxtrot your new floor smooth.

After all, you'll want to open those cabinets up because of the humidity...

I take it back. I did lose one machine. A Dictaphone that was sitting on our porch. But that thing never worked anyway. And it was one of the very late Dictaphones from the late 1940s that used a mic instead of a speaking tube to record on the cylinder. And I just couldn’t get it to work electronically. Kinda stinks because mechanically it worked fine, and if it was one of the earlier models that used the speaking tube I would have made recordings on it months ago. Oh well, I recently got a 2 minute recorder for my Edison players anyway. Just less clutter in my life.