The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Okay--Apparently Philco used to build intercoms for International Business Machines "Time Keeping" office. So basically IBM. And they were huge 1930s things, too, and I ended up with a free one or at least what's left of it.

It looks like the wreck of a steampunk Starship Enterprise, but the trough at the bottom used to be for whatever the old record players were that throw the 78s into a tray.

I've got a custom-built intercom unit for the old Irmo, S.C. school. It was removed in 2010 in good shape but stored in a barn where its cabinet delaminated and it now has collapsed.

I don't know, but this thing has more knobs and switches than a Peterbilt truck tractor, and I'm probably going to pull the radio chassis, junk the 1960s turntable installed where the old 1930s one would have gone, and burn what's left of the cabinet unless it'd be a real bad thing to do it--there can't be many Philco intercom units like this left. It's literally the size of a console Victrola.



Pics tomorrow--

Reminder: Pictures promised!

Right!

I still have to go dig the camera out--and upload pics on the other computer; my laptop is too old for that and lacks the SD card slot.

Anyway, the cabinet was in such bad shape that it fell apart while being moved. Which, honestly, is about what I would have expected. The history I was able to find on these was that International Business Machines used to have Philco build these for them. They were each custom built to their individual applications. Unfortunately, rare as they are, the world is now short another one. It had literally rotted--there wasn't anything really to see there. I'd pick up one side and the whole thing would just about turn inside out. It was a hassle to get it off the little flat hand-cart and into the barn so when I did, I promptly began dismantling it.

And inside there were plenty of good things. I found that the 1960s turntable is "Made in England," so presumably a Garrard. It resembles a few of their models but the speed control is different, so I've not IDed it yet.

The radio was the exciting part. It has (I think? Kind of dirty in there) not eight, not nine, but TEN vacuum tubes on it. I think it's one of their bigger radios from 1936, and I'm thinking either on making a DIY cabinet for it, or finding a Philco cabinet missing its chassis and putting it in there. It is in rough shape but I'm sure it can be got running again. The capacitors will need replacing, and the dial scales are nasty. Fortunately the "shadow meter" is intact. It will sure beat magic-eye tubes.

I've got to re-cap my 1929 Atwater Kent 46, and hopefully get it playing again with the longwire antenna I found inside the Philco, but that new huge chassis will be nice if I can build a radio for it--there are a lot of shortwave bands on it! I can't wait.

The little turntable will probably get rebuilt, maybe with a modernized cartridge: it needs a new idler wheel. Maybe instead of driving it with the old 1936 radio guts, I'll hook it up to a cheap modern tube amp & some lightweight speakers, maybe some good headphones, just so I can play vinyl records again. It's got a fifty-fifty chance of going for scrap iron, though. I never did like record changers of that 1960s vintage...actually, I don't care for most record changers, period. But it's a phonograph, and I'm a restorer, so--??

Interesting! It always amazes me that theses things nearly a hundred years old can work as intended again. I love the rebuildable aspect of vintage phonographs and radios (not to mention just about anything built before 1970).