The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This caught my eye and I thought it was kinda neat.

I've seen several home made disc machines but rarely any cylinder ones. (It doesn't look like it could ever really "play".)

Can anyone recognize where the parts came of off?

(https://www.ebay.com/itm/unknown-cylind ... ctupt=true)

Well, the reproducer is on a door hinge, my guess is the barrel is from some sort of food can, maybe they made the mandrel themselves. The feed screw thread looks too far apart, I doubt this ever worked, looks like a good attempt.

Martin

Mormon S wrote:Well, the reproducer is on a door hinge, my guess is the barrel is from some sort of food can, maybe they made the mandrel themselves. The feed screw thread looks too far apart, I doubt this ever worked, looks like a good attempt.

Martin

That's what I was thinking, it doesn't even look like you can attach a horn to the makeshift reproducer.

Maybe this is no phonograph at all, but a thing to inscribe something (paper/wax) with some sort of graph.
The thing at the "reproducer/recorder" could very well be a fixture for some kind of cable.
Very interesting piece for sure.

Looks very ingenious to me. I would buy it for $ 10 just to have fun cleaning it up and getting it to work. That is assuming we are looking at a reproducer on the door hinge not a pencil holder for some sort of graph recorder.

Bruce

OK. Seems to be hand-cranked: there's no ratchet, and the "barrel" looks more like some sort of flywheel. There's no governor; the "feedscrew" is incredibly coarse. The "reproducer" looks like it might have come off a stethoscope.

Bill

It sold for $45.00 plus $30.00 to ship. Total of $75.00. Interesting piece, though.
Harvey Kravitz

Phonofreak wrote:It sold for $45.00 plus $30.00 to ship. Total of $75.00. Interesting piece, though.
Harvey Kravitz

Oh my, and just to think I only got 250.00 last year for a nice Columbia Q with original reproducer and key. I think that seller did good.