The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

For those who might be interested, I just listed a nice Polyphone attachment for an Edison Home on my TechnoGallerie website. Very hard to find these loose, especially for a Home.

see: https://www.technogallerie.com/shop/189 ... honograph/

-- Grant

Grant has a beautiful carriage that would make someone a prize for their collection..If there’s interest, I have original reproducers, repro horns and a set of George’s Polyphone elbows that he made a while back...PM with interest..

Joe

Are the reproducers proprietary to the Polyphone in any way, or would a set of any automatic reproducers be authentic?

Martin

The very first polyphone arms used regular Edison Automatics. They had an adjusting screw like all Edison carriages for positioning the reproducer. That was found to be impractical as the record was often half way through playing before synchronization was achieved. They then redesigned the Edison Automatic reproducers with weights that were interconnected with a male and female clip to maintain perfect synchronization. So to answer your question, if a carriage lacks the adjusting screw then yes you must use the proprietary polyphone automatic reproducers that were intended for that carriage

edisonclassm wrote:The very first polyphone arms used regular Edison Automatics. They had an adjusting screw like all Edison carriages for positioning the reproducer. That was found to be impractical as the record was often half way through playing before synchronization was achieved. They then redesigned the Edison Automatic reproducers with weights that were interconnected with a male and female clip to maintain perfect synchronization. So to answer your question, if a carriage lacks the adjusting screw then yes you must use the proprietary polyphone automatic reproducers that were intended for that carriage

Thanks for the concise answer. How much more uncommon are the earlier ones with the adjustment screws? Do they command a higher price?

Martin

Martin,

There were actually 3 major variations with the Polyphone. There was the early style with the adjusting screw on the side of the carriage, there was the 2nd style with no adjusting screw and the reproducers have the male/female linkage, and there was the 3rd variation that was called the Licensed version. The third setup has the reproducers built into the carriage and are not removable. None of these machines are common by any means, but the Licensed version is the rarest of the three. The early version is next and the 2nd variation is the most common. I wish that we had more concrete knowledge about production, etc. but most of it has been lost to time.. They are truly wonderful machines, but when out of sync they are awful..

As for values, they are all valuable. The Licensed version Are the most valuable, then the early version, followed by the 2nd style. Again, the value is how much someone is willing to pay and the scarcity involved.

Notice the variation in the reproducers in the picture. The reproducers on the left are the second style. Notice the interlocking m/f clips to help keep the reproducers in sync. The picture on the right shows the third style with the built in reproducers..

As with so many machines of this era, there are variations galore. Ask any question you like as that is how we learn.

Joe

I read with interest the discussion about the polyphone reproducers, horns and was wondering if they were for sale.

Direct email sent..

Joe

The Polyphone attachment has been sold.