The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Apologies for the random nature of this post, but this seems like the best place to get some advice. We have inherited 5 dictaphone machines from my mother-in-law. She saved them when they were being thrown out by a local solicitors. They have been gathering dust in out garage for some years and we wanted to work out what to do with them. We both work for museums and the thought of throwing them away after all this time doesn’t feel right to us, so we are hoping that someone can give us some advice on if they are worthy of preservation? We are based in Kent in the UK but think these machines may be American, so are posting here.

What do you want to do with them, they are not trash, but certainly aren't "treasure". Hopefully someone in the UK will want them.

I agree with Curt. They have low value. You can't play entertainment cylinders on them.

Jerry B.

The shaving machine may be worth something to anyone who wants to make their own recordings - if the blade is in good shape.

- Bill

I think they are beautiful and would make a neat sort of audio guestbook for a gathering or something.

They'll be treasure to somebody.
If you can't be bothered advertising them, don't just throw them away. Give them to lifeline or some other charity so someone can make a little bit of money and they find a new home where they're appreciated.

Hello Gareth! I'm near Dover too! I also have a set of these machines, slightly later versions - one day I may get round to trying to record with them. They come up for sale occasionally on the likes of eBay and I follow them for interest - sadly, they rarely sell unless very cheap. But as others have said, they can be used for cylinder recording and are worthy of preservation. Unfortunately they are a different format to other cylinder phonographs and the recordings can't be played on other types of machine.

The shaving machines however can be used for normal cylinders, and consequently have more value than the others (for recording and playback) so sadly, these sets often get split up rendering the other machines more or less useless.

Best wishes,
Andy

Sorry for the delay in replying, busy week at work. Thanks for all your help and advice. I think we will post into the sales/swap group and see if anyone would like them for free. It would be great to see them go to a good home.