The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have about a dozen intact original Dictaphone cylinders, they all appear to be unused, as they're smooth with no grooves. There's some light mold, as can also be seen, but I don't think that will adversely affect the performance as it's on the surface, which has not even been cut into or recorded on yet. Two have a chip toward the top, one is slight, the other a little large, maybe half an inch or so. None are cracked or otherwise damaged.

There are also a dozen containers, in sequential order from 1 to 16, missing 8, 12, 13 and 15. There are a couple of extra empty containers as well that I'll include.

$60 plus postage for everything. If interested, send me a message or email brianu73 at hotmail.

Brian

$50 plus postage.

Hi

I would take them but, postage to Australia would be more than they are worth, damn.

Regards Marcel

yes, that's probably true, but thanks for expressing interest. I'd keep them, but they'd just sit on a shelf collecting dust and I'd much rather see them with someone who might be able to use them. there was actually some question as to whether these would work, or fit, on an ediphone, but I just don't know the size/measurements of the mandrel and all.

Yes, they'll fit either Dictaphone or Ediphone.
Those machines all have the same size mandrel.

They can easily be turned down and cut off to
fit any Edison phonograph too. They work very
well as Edison phonograph recording blanks.

Those dictation cylinders are generally about
2.384 inches outside diameter when new. They
need to be shaved down to an outside diameter
of 2.196 inches in order to clear Edison phonograph recorders and reproducers.

They can be cut off to length to fit the shorter Edison phonograph mandrel. I usually spin them up on my Ediphone electrically powered shaver, and cut them off to length using a darning needle.

The working range is from about 2.196, down to
2.112 diameter, and at roughly .004 inches
taken off per shave, that amounts to about
21 shave-and-record cycles per blank.

Rather tempting...... but I don't really have the proper equipment to cut them down to size.....

Bill

Chuck wrote:Yes, they'll fit either Dictaphone or Ediphone.
Those machines all have the same size mandrel.

Are you sure?
My Ediphone cylinders wont slide all the way on to my Dictaphone mandrel. It's as if the Ediphone cylinders are of a smaller diameter at the large end (left hand end), and they leave about 1" of the mandrel exposed.
I dont have an Dictaphone cylinders to try on my Ediphone machine though.

gramophoneshane wrote:

Chuck wrote:Yes, they'll fit either Dictaphone or Ediphone.
Those machines all have the same size mandrel.

Are you sure?
My Ediphone cylinders wont slide all the way on to my Dictaphone mandrel. It's as if the Ediphone cylinders are of a smaller diameter at the large end (left hand end), and they leave about 1" of the mandrel exposed.
I dont have an Dictaphone cylinders to try on my Ediphone machine though.

Ok, well here are the the only things I am
absolutely sure of so far, from working with them first hand:

I use a Dictaphone electrically powered shaving
machine that was built in 1923. (incorrectly
stated before as an Ediphone shaver).

Most of the blanks I have shaved on it are
Ediphone ones, and they seem to fit right.

So do the few Dictaphone brand blanks that I
have ran across and used.

I am pretty well convinced that the mandrel
taper is the same for Ediphone, Dictaphone,
and Edison phonographs.

I have also found that when reaming the inside
of a freshly cast brown wax blank, that when
it fits the shaver mandrel with about .43 inches hanging off the left end (the big end),
that the blank will line up on the Edison phonograph mandrel having the left ends of
blank and mandrel nicely lined up evenly.

Here are the measurements of these mandrels
as best I can get them:

Dictaphone shaver mandrel:
1.82 inch dia. large end
1.638 inch dia. small end
5.854 inch length

Edison Standard model D mandrel:
1.833 dia. large end
1.689 dia. small end
4.713 inch length

I can bring these to the wayne, NJ phono show april 10, 2011 as well.