The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Long story short, this weekend I bought a collection of Ediphone and Dictaphone machines (pictures below) that were originally from a New England university. The machines were going to be scrapped in the 1960's but a professor who couldn't bare to see them thrown out preserved them. His son now nearly 60 years later was looking to get rid of them and ultimately was going to scrap them if no one would buy them. So I fortunately saw the machines for sale and for all of $50 got 6 machines in amazingly preserved condition, with tons of cylinders, parts and accessories.

While I know many aren't into Ediphones or Dictaphones, I had built up a small collection over the years including having a new old stock box of 12 Ediphone master wax cylinders in the original shipping box as a prized possession (though comes next after my new old stock brown wax ICS cylinder blank in the original shipping box). Also, a collection of reproducers and parts from an original Ediphone servicer. I've heard people say there is no collection value or historical value, but I couldn't disagree more. These were designed to provide business professionals, professors, doctors, writers etc ways to record their thoughts and ideas for transcription or mass distribution and I believe they have a place in the evolution of recorded sound for so many reasons. I also appreciate the art deco and space age look these machines were designed with. Interested in other's thoughts.

All that said, below are some pictures of my latest haul. 1x Edison Master Shaver, 1x Dictaphone Shaver (labeled as being used in physics department), 2x Dictaphone Cameo Model Transcribers (i.e. players), 1x Dictaphone Model A12 (recorder), and 1x Ediphone Model CA (recorder). There was also a box of pedals for starting and stopping recordings, headphones, additional recording tube, 2 brand new motors (never seen motors so clean!), and stacks of dictation marking paper and cylinders (including to 2x 6x cylinder carrying cases). I'm looking forward to starting to listen to some of the cylinders and cleaning up the machines.

That's quite a find and quite a deal!

I agree that these machines / recordings should have some historical significance...

That professor who saved them in the 1960's was a kindred soul...

Congratulations !

It would be interesting to see one of these Ediphones or Dictaphones in action.

I had a very late dictaphone that used a microphone instead of a speaking tube to record on cylinders but it never worked and it was my only casualty from the flood back in March.

The thing I find interesting, is that these dictation machines, when working like new, were the last word in acoustical voice recording. They were used into the 1960's and they sound fantastic at reproducing the human voice. Unlike disc records, where it was OK to guess at the words a little for entertainment purposes. The cylinder acoustical dictation machine had to record the voice clearly, as it was to be used to type from, and for it to work every sound had to be understood so mistakes were not made in understanding,and be as fool proof as possible. Value however is still quite low, except for the shaving machines, which usually bring the most as they can be used for excellent high speed shaving.

Now you have your own Ediphone and Dictophone Museum....lol..

That Edison Shaver will sure come in handy..... The others are pretty much interesting Museum Paperweights unless you can use them as shavers.....and might be fun to play with... Some of them may be able to play 6" Wax and 6" Celluloid cylinders...which is probably your biggest bonus other than them being a shaver..


They are all in certainly excellent condition...That is for sure!

Good luck with them..!

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

NEFaurora wrote: Some of them may be able to play 6" Wax and 6" Celluloid cylinders...which is probably your biggest bonus other than them being a shaver..

Sadly, no, they can't. The office machines are 150 turns per inch (tpi), and the 6" cylinders are 100 tpi, so they're not compatible.

Dictaphone and Ediphone blanks are plentiful. You can record your own information on them, use them as actual dictation machines! Have them at your desk and dictate thoughts and letters on them as they were intended, I do that with my Ediphone. You can also practice music recording on them, the technology on them was the highest point of acoustical recording, when working properly the recorders on these are quite sensitive, and will make nice musical recordings, and you can get them up to 160rpm. Ediphone and Dictaphone are 10 tpi different, Ediphone 150 Dictaphone 160. They won't play entertainment records, however you can make different recording horns for them and experiment. The problem with many people who fiddle with cylinder recording is they become discouraged when they start to record and have bad results. It takes hours and hours of practice to get good at recording cylinders, so no matter your education level don't stop practicing. These dictation machines, if you have blanks can give you good practice at recording, the blanks shave 50 times or more, so you can practice recording on them.