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I received this from good friend and mentor, John Davis, perhaps twenty years ago. He told me it was a device to stamp or create aluminum diaphragms for the Edison O reproducer. (That's to the best of my memory. ). What is it officially called? Was it something an Edison dealer might have? Is it homemade? Is it from the Edison factory? I'd be pleased with any opinions.

Thanks, Jerry Blais

Very cool!
Looks like something member MicaMonster would be interested in.

James.

Absolutely, VERY cool indeed !

An important piece of history showing how things were made it seems right there !

I think technically it would be called a "die," wouldn't it?

drh wrote:I think technically it would be called a "die," wouldn't it?

Yes, it's a die, or a set of dies. I made a similar set many years ago. The brass half is made first, then the other half, (probably zinc, or maybe an alloy called kirksite), is melted and poured into the first half, thereby casting a perfect reverse of the first half. Presto, you have your stamping dies. The process however is not a perfect one as it does not take into account the thickness of the diaphragm material, which is minimal, so I kind of doubt that it would be the way that original diaphragms were stamped. But who knows...

Have you tried making any diaphrapms on it.?? It would be interesting to see how they sound. Tom