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At a quick passing glance, this looks like any other external horn talking machine. Wind it up, clamp a loud tone needle in the chuck, pour yourself a stiff cognac, throw on your favourite Harry Lauder 12” disc, and toast the bygone era of the acoustic disc phonograph. Right?
For those of us whose vision is a little sharper, and slightly less bleery, a closer inspection of this machine will bring certain feelings of awe, inspiration, and sympathy. Sympathy for the company that created it, and their immense legal battles to keep their heads above water. Awe struck with the incredible build quality and attention to detail. And inspired by the inventiveness that is reflected in the engineering marvels of its mechanics and design. In the end, Ellsworth Hawthorne and Horace Sheble (SHEB-lee **) closed a successful business that could have become a titan. The remaining inventory of machines and records were auctioned off to the highest bidder.
(** - Pronunciation credited to Fabrizio & Paul’s research into the H&S Company. )
I recall that GFP posted his H&S machine a while ago, along with a pretty good writeup as well. This is a different model, though, and still worth a look.
H&S was a manufacturer of phonograph accessories, often surpassing the big phonograph manufacturers in quality and design. The drip-pan Edison GEM didn’t have a cabinet…..but H&S offered one for it before Edison did! An immense manufacturer with multiple manufacturing facilities, this wasn’t a small time fly-by-night firm in the slightest. If left to continue, I’m sure we would be shopping for Hawthorne & Sheble iPods, and watching the MSH&S Morning News (with Stone Phillips and Andy Rooney).
This model, which GFP believes is either a Model 75 or 85, is unmarked. No patent plate, no makers plate, and no writing anywhere on the machine other than the riveted six-pointed star badge on the nickel plated horn with the H&S company emblem.
There are numerous features which I will try to focus on. The cabinet, is strong, with its four solid corner columns, serpentine bottom, and highly nickel plated hardware. Well made, and solid as a granite pillar. What more can be expected from a company who specializes in high quality cabinetry.
The often overlooked crank has a easy to grip handle and a very long throw, which makes winding the machine a pleasure and not a labor. The bud vase inspired reproducer rest doubles as a needle cup. Unscrew the bottom plug to empty the accumulated needles. The nickel plated horn is adorned on the inside with a red translucent tint, and pink roses.
The attractive blue 4-spring motor is a mechanical marvel. I believe this was designed by Thomas Kraemer (of Philadelphia), but I could be wrong. Two banks of double springs, each with its own well fit cover, connected together by a central shaft, turning the spindle shaft by an industrially well cut intermediate shaft and tightly engineered worm shaft.
The large winding gear makes winding a fast chore, instead of one of tedium and sour athleticism. The craftsmanship of this unseen workhorse puts the products of every other talking machine firm to shame. Its design projects the creative prowess of the gifted designer, who also designed this machine’s Yielding Pressure Feed tonearm.
In a failed attempt to avoid patent litigation with the Victor Talking Machine company, Kraemer also designed the strange tone arm on this machine, utilizing an aluminium Mobley diaphragm on the soundbox. To work around the Victor tapered tone arm patent, the fat tone arm had concealed inside of it a sliding tapered cone which would allow the operator to slide the cone back, thus lowering the volume by allowing the sound vibrations to dampen in the surrounding area of the tone arm. For full tone, one would slide the cone forward to make a sealed connection (with a leather tube) to the reproducer elbow. This, unfortunately, created a tapered tone arm, which Victor highly disapproved of, since it was a Victor patented feature. In my humble opinion, this machine has the most effective method of volume control other than shoving a sock down the horn. With a soft tone needle and the tone modifier all the way back, the machine plays at just above a gentle whisper, and makes for lovely company. The Yielding Pressure Feed system consisted of a spiral wound spring mounted inside the back bracket. This spring applied a gentle spindle-facing pressure to the tone arm. The idea was that instead of the outer groove wall pulling the needle across the record, that the spring would be doing the job. This did not hold up in court, though.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I’m tired, and off to bed!
When she hits 300,000 mi, we're having a block party.