The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Does anyone recognize this adapter? It was found in a box with the best record haul I've ever had. The adapter appears to be used on ANY machine, including a Busy Bee for Aretino records. It is indeed patented and not homemade. Any ideas?

Aretino disks had a large spindle cap on the turntable. I suspect that cap came off an Aretino turntable. Busy Bee discs had an rectangular opening away from the spindle so I suspect that is part of a multi use adaptor.

Jerry B.

Hi That,

That is an interesting item, I’ve not seen another.

You have just given yourself some homework without probably realizing it. With the many resources available these days most any answer can be found through a diligent Google search. In this case Google Patent. The date is clearly marked on the piece so look up the patents granted on that (Tuesday) date. Gone are are the days of needing to research items with a visit to the Patent office, you can do that from home. I’m always amazed that questions are posted on this board that have an easy answer with a little self study. Is it just a lot easier to pose the question here rather than doing the work yourself? I’d be more interested in seeing postings that say, I looked into this and my research is at a dead end, can someone suggest a resource or have first-hand knowledge? What are the next steps?

So—I could make a guess that it might be an Arentino record adapter or I could do the research for you and post my findings. But— I’d rather that you spend some time being curious about it and report back to us here. Maybe you don’t know about Google Patent or Allen Koenigsberg’s phonograph patent book or any of the wonderful George Paul and Tim Fabrizio books, so these are my tips for you.

What you might have posted:
Hey, I found this really interesting part in my latest record haul and I’d like to share what I learned about it. The Patent date leads me to…, it was invented by.. and the patented features are… Do any of you own one of have seen something like this. Thanks for your replies.

Let’s keep this fun and interesting but my suggestion is to do a little curious investigation ourselves before posting.

Mark

Wow, Mark. Passive aggressive much? Sorry I had no clue about the things you suggested. Perhaps go push someone else around who happens to NOT be online. There are no stupid questions, I was just curious. Apologies for that ..........

I agree with you, no stupid questions. If you don't have a response or do have a response and don't want to answer fine but like you said let's keep it fun. New members like me have no idea what you are talking about. I have always gotten great information from other members to my newbie questions. Wow just don't respond to questions if you are having a bad day.

Well I just tried a Google patent search, using the advanced search page, for all patents granted or published on 1907-12-20

https://patents.google.com/?before=publ ... n:19071220

....and came up with.......

Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Aught. Diddly. Nought. Zip.

All of this reminded me of a site I used to visit, years ago, that contained an online phonograph patent database. After culling through my old bookmarks, I finally found it: http://www.phonozoic.net/patents/

It's somewhat limited in scope, in terms of the period it covers, but it does have a lot of interesting and surprising information.

OrthoFan

Yes, I did as well. And likewise, came up with absolutely nothing. So I reached out to Tim Fabrizio himself, and he answered gracefully and without hesitation. He explained that this adapter was made by Arthur O'Neill, of O'Neill James, in order to make Aretino records a universal record for ALL machines when used with the adapter. Tim is a very nice and fair guy and a wealth of information. Case closed, mystery solved.

Thatphonographguy wrote: Thu May 11, 2023 6:53 pm Yes, I did as well. And likewise, came up with absolutely nothing. So I reached out to Tim Fabrizio himself, and he answered gracefully and without hesitation. He explained that this adapter was made by Arthur O'Neill, of O'Neill James, in order to make Aretino records a universal record for ALL machines when used with the adapter. Tim is a very nice and fair guy and a wealth of information. Case closed, mystery solved.

Glad you found the information you were looking for. BTY, I added an interesting link to my post above.

OrthoFan

I wanna hear about the record haul. What did you buy me?

Everyone has their own approach to learning, or choosing not to learn. Some just want their answers without expending effort, while others are grateful when presented with the tools to learn more.

And some people get butt-hurt at the drop of a feather.

My favorite part of this whole lovely milieu was the delightful and beautiful juxtaposition of the terms “Tim Fabrizio” and “gracefully” - hearing my favorite phono-Nureyev described in such fashion has had me smiling ever since, even if his temperament may be closer to that of Nijinsky.