The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hey Folks,

Lets celebrate Monday with a new How Does That Coin-Operated Phonograph Work video. This one on a transitional 102 Hexaphone!!

Enjoy!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exm4CxwB3F0


Shawn

These are entertaining and educational. Well done ... again.

James.

Great video. Keep them coming. And yes, these can be "hexed" from time to time.

Shawn

Pretty Neat Shawn! It was long enough so that I could make some popcorn and eat it before it ended!
On another note, my dad worked in the city (we lived in Brooklyn) and my sister and I had dinner once or twice a month at the Pennsylvania Hotel with our parents-it was a pretty neat place circa 1955.

Keep um coming, probably the only way I will ever see one of these machines in operation.
Abe

Absolutely, Abe! Glad to be enough of a diversion so you could get in a snack!! Appreciate the comments.

Shawn

As always, great video, Shawn. I remain somewhat mystified by the timing mechanism, and don’t have the guts (or expertise) to disassemble a Hexaphone mechanism to learn more. Are there any YouTube tutorials?

Raphael

Raphael,

Great question.  

I have not produced a video tutorial on disassembly and reassembly on any coin-operated phonograph.  

The closest I have come are the 30 articles I have written on "How Does That Coin-Operated Phonograph Work?", which I am now reproducing as videos on my YouTube channel :
( https://www.youtube.com/@Shawn_O_Phonograph ). Even for those articles, I do not get into much of the minutiae of the phonograph's workings. That being said, I have had comments that my articles are too "technical."  I recognized that fact early on, and begain to fill the first half of each article with historical facts and interesting details of the overall coin-operated phonograph and company that produced it.   I've also had heartfelt thanks from owners of a particular machine that used the technical portion of my article to get theirs back functioning.  

So to those I have helped, I am deeply honored and gratified, and those I have bored, I am truly sorry.

I've personally had the privilege of working on close to 30 different Hexaphones. Even today, I take pictures as reference to aid in accurate reassembly. In point, there are gears on a Hexaphone that have to be reassmbled on the correct maiting tooth (not just the correct location) of another gear, or the mechanism won't function correctly. So in fact, a video of the complete disassembly of a Hexaphone would be long and tedious, not much fun to watch unless you actually needed to disassemble a Hexaphone.  And in my estimation, that is a very small target audience, especially when you take into account those that want to, and have the technical capabilities to actually do so. 

Just my thoughts.

Thanks for watching the videos. Enjoy them and lets keep on learning!!!

Shawn

Shawn,

You sure have helped me on a number of occasions with my troublesome coin-ops! I've learned (the hard way) to leave it to experts like you to straighten out the turkeys that have come my way over the years.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the Style 100 "Automatic Reginaphone" in your video discussion of Hexaphone history. Many collectors refer to it as a "Tabletop Hexaphone" due to various similarities.

Thanks again for all you do to further both the hobby and lifespan of these complex coin-ops.

Raphael