598529 Montross Motor
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2022 10:00 am
Levi Montross
Thank you for this interesting patent. It always struck me as "curious" that Montross did not mention the words "phonograph" or "gramophone" or even "talking machine" in his zeal for patenting his important improvement to Emile's hand-winds. Even when Aldridge published his in-house history of the Victor Talking Machine Co. years ago (limited ed), he was not able to find this patent (which gave Johnson some serious headaches). As advanced collectors know, its 2 versions preceded Eldridge's (more famous) Trademark Model by 8 months in the marketplace.
Not many people know that there was an earlier (by several years) spring-driven version of the Berliner Gramophone, but only one prototype was made, and has not survived.
It (and the work of J. W. Jones) will be discussed in the March 2022 issue of The Antique Phonograph, along with a very unusual Berliner disc recording.
Allen