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Thought I would share this Zon-O-phone ad that I came across in the Dec. 1900 issue of Scientific American. The ad is quite large approx. 5x6.. Interesting as to the fierce competition between phonograph companies. There was also and ad's for Gramophones as well as Edison..

Zonophone touts that with their newly discovered "secret process" for making records, the sound is far superior to all other and attempts to show this with a print of two supposedly examples of recording sound waves.

At the end of the ad, there is an offer to the first 500 subscribers to Scientific American. National Gram-O-Phone corp will send free of charge a complete machine along with records for a 24 hour trial bases/examine....

If subscribers decide to keep the outfit, the cost would be $20.00.

See pictures attached

fmblizz

That's a cool ad, Gary - - thanks for posting it.

The spectrographic analysis of the two records would have been of interest to many subscribers of The Scientific American, but I don't recall seeing this ad in other publications of the time.

The $20 "Special Offer" would have consisted of the $18 Type C Zonophone and 4 of the 50 cent discs on trial. Of course, the potential customer would have been responsible for the shipping cost to return the outfit. I'll bet lots of talking machines were sold on the "free trial" plan!

George P.

Gary, thanks for the heads-up. I just looked, and happen to also have a copy of that issue of Scientific American, thanks to esteemed phonograph collector Ernest Bennett. About 10 years ago, while preparing for a move to a retirement facility, Ernie sold off the remainder of his collections to me. Among the treasures was a complete set of Scientific Americans dating back to around the 1860’s. I sold most of the issues in 5-year sets, and it was quite a fun project. I kept about 15 or 20 issues for myself, as they make for interesting reading. In one I found an article of a newly patented musical bicycle. My friends in Switzerland got quite a kick out of that!

Several of Ernie’s great phonographs (including an Auxetophone) can be found while browsing The Compleat Talking Machine by Eric Reiss. I lost touch with Ernie after he switched to another facility and believe he has now passed away. RIP.

Raphael

Raphael wrote:Gary, thanks for the heads-up. I just looked, and happen to also have a copy of that issue of Scientific American, thanks to esteemed phonograph collector Ernest Bennett. About 10 years ago, while preparing for a move to a retirement facility, Ernie sold off the remainder of his collections to me. Among the treasures was a complete set of Scientific Americans dating back to around the 1860’s. I sold most of the issues in 5-year sets, and it was quite a fun project. I kept about 15 or 20 issues for myself, as they make for interesting reading. In one I found an article of a newly patented musical bicycle. My friends in Switzerland got quite a kick out of that!

Several of Ernie’s great phonographs (including an Auxetophone) can be found while browsing The Compleat Talking Machine by Eric Reiss. I lost touch with Ernie after he switched to another facility and believe he has now passed away. RIP.

Raphael

Perfect tune for that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bU68mFIDXw

Perfect.....

blizz