The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I've been wondering what the biggest cylinder horn ever commercially produced is. I have a 30 inch brass/enameled horn for my home b and have seen up to 54 inch (possibly larger, the edison laboratory museum in orange NJ has a big selection! I didn't bring a measuring tape though!)
Does anyone have an answer for me?

thanks, Ben

Hawthorne & Sheble offered a 9-foot horn in its 1901 catalog. That's the largest cataloged cylinder machine horn I've seen.

George P.

The largest horns that I have seen for use on regular cylinder phonographs were 72" long. There may have been longer ones, but I have not seen them in the 58 years that I have been involved with this hobby.

edisonclassm wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 6:30 pm The largest horns that I have seen for use on regular cylinder phonographs were 72" long. There may have been longer ones, but I have not seen them in the 58 years that I have been involved with this hobby.

Same here, Paul. In 1973 I found a 72" Tea Tray B&B horn in a shop just east of Canandaigua on Rt.20. It was $225 (a lot of money in 1973), but I couldn't think of where I could possibly use/store it even if I could have scraped the money together. I sometimes wonder what happened to it.

George P.

The large horn I have pictured is 72 inches. The smaller horn is 42 inches. It is the largest I’ve seen in Australia.The friend I got the horn off said he got it with a Home phonograph and it was used in a hall to play music. I have set it up and it wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be but maybe in a large room it would really project the sound.
Stephen

budsta wrote: Tue Jan 10, 2023 6:34 am The large horn I have pictured is 72 inches. The smaller horn is 42 inches. It is the largest I’ve seen in Australia.The friend I got the horn off said he got it with a Home phonograph and it was used in a hall to play music. I have set it up and it wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be but maybe in a large room it would really project the sound.
Stephen

There is a 72" one at my local record store. It's a bit banged up and has seen better days but apparently it works quite well for recording cylinders.

Indredible! I had no idea. Thanks as always everyone! True monsters of things!

Ben

I remember the video Victrolaman had when he had a monster horn on his Columbia Q. Now that was really cool hearing how nice you can make a machine like that sound!

Re: Largest size cylinder horn.
Post by budsta » Tue Jan 10, 2023 3:34 am

The large horn I have pictured is 72 inches. The smaller horn is 42 inches. It is the largest I’ve seen in Australia.The friend I got the horn off said he got it with a Home phonograph and it was used in a hall to play music. I have set it up and it wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be but maybe in a large room it would really project the sound.
I wonder if on a horn that there might be a point of diminishing sound level. I remember one of the old posts that showed someone trying to perfect a very long horn that had a bunch of curves in it several years ago. I FORgot the outcome. ( old age )Tom