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“On This Day in the History of Recorded Sound…”

June 23, 1896: Edward Amet was granted a U.S. patent (No.562,694) for a “Graphophone or Device for Reproducing Sounds From Sound Writings.” This humble device was sold briefly as the Echophone, the first low-priced talking machine ($5.00), the first with a tone arm, and the first with adjustable tone arm pressure. For more: https://forum.antiquephono.org/topic/60 ... mment-2945

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Thanks George,
But I still don't really understand how the vibrations get from the "bellows" reproducer to the speaker hole.
Art Heller

There are no "bellows" on an Echophone. (I believe that myth originated with Read & Welch.)

The reproducer (sometimes called the "resonator") is simply a thin rectangular piece of wood (the diaphragm) with a rubber tube (the gasket) sandwiched between it and a solidly mounted rectangular piece of thicker wood. It's all held together by rubber bands. The compressed rubber tube has a hole punched through its top and bottom so that it acts as a gasket. Below the rubber tube/gasket, the thicker wooden rectangle has a corresponding hole which turns 90 degrees to exit out the side of the supporting pedestal.

The glass tube tone arm sits on the thin wooden diaphragm via a small post. As the tone arm vibrates from the record, it transfers those vibrations to the thin wooden diaphragm, which is free to vibrate upon the compressed rubber tube/gasket. In this way it works like most other reproducers/sound boxes.

There are no pneumatic principles involved as in a bellows.

I hope this makes sense!

George P.

Interesting--But that is different from the patent description which shows the vibration exit hole level with the space between the two wooden rectangles. The design changed from the patent description to the manufactured item. There must be a hole in the fixed wooden rectangle leading below to transmit the vibrations. (I don't want to take mine apart to find out)

George is right. There is nothing pneumatic about the reproducer. It's a simple glass tube/rod with a small stylus formed on the end that transmits vibrations from the record to a small sound board which would act like a diaphragm. Not the most efficient way of doing things but it worked (sort of). The design I'm sure was an attempt to get around established patents.

Here's a short video I made about the Echophone a number of years ago, with a demonstration at the end. It's an odd reproducer to say the least, but it does work surprisingly well.

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

I love these little cheap machines. There is something captivating about them vs the big name brand machines.