The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Edward Amet

Thanks for posting this important patent.

Curiously, when the first Amet motors/phonographs were marketed in 1894, they had a single mainspring (in a brass barrel) and a small but "busy" nickeled plate on the governor-arm stating that it was "patented in 1892"! (but no month, no day, no pat #).

The upper works used recycled chasses from the earlier Edison Class M electric phonographs (and even converted AGCo/Bell-Tainter Treadle tops). The improved Amet soon had a double-mainspring (also w/ ball-bearing motor), and then finally, went out in a blaze of glory, as a table-top coin-op model with FOUR mainsprings. The motors were bolted to the bottom of the oak cabinets.

At the other end of the monetary scale, in 1895, he also invented/produced the serial-numbered 'Amet Talking Machine' with a bubble-level in the wooden base (see 562,753 in PHP). The first examples (indented wooden mandrel) did not have the little coiled spring to the glass tube, but depended on a horizontal" weight" to improve contact with the cylinder. When this "weight-design" was soon terminated, the bubble-level (and knurled adjusting screw) were no longer necessary on the Metaphone/Echophone and hence removed. Only one "Notice: Keep Me Level" type is known to exist - and was illustrated on his original stationery.

Allen

Here's more information, including a video of an Amet motor in operation:

https://forum.antiquephono.org/topic/35 ... mment-2033