The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Recently I purchased an early Graphopone Type C (early version per Hazelcorn) I would like to
Know more about the machine, its inner workings and date of mfg.

The machine holds tension, but when engaged it bogs down and binds. Hopefully someone can help me with this issue.

Any help is appreciated, and thank you!

First off it's a nice looking C. The tray is usually missing.

It takes a lot to stop one of those motors so if it runs correctly with the belt off and when you disengage the clutch than either the top works are
incredibly gummed up with dried grease or something is bent or potmetal parts are binding. best thing is to just take the top works apart clean and check
all the moving parts. If you haven't taken one of them apart go slow and take notes where pieces came from, especially the small drive gear on the mandrel
shaft put it in backwards and the pulley won't tighten on the shaft, also the nut on the drive pulley is left hand thread.
The reproducer on the slanted carriage models should be a #2 and the horizontal carriage mount is a #5. I think yours has a #8.

I have 4 of them 3 different versions with the slanted reproducer one with the horizontal.


Chuck

Chuck has given excellent advice on how to eliminate the drag when the feed screw is engaged.

As for when this one was manufactured, it's somewhat helpful that the Type A/AT and Type C shared serial blocks so that known production benchmarks can be compared. I'd date this Type C at 1899.

George P.

Thank you both very much. I am very unfamiliar with early Columbia’s and could only gather so much from the Hazelcorn book.

Thanks to a lot of help from forum members, this one is finally up and running again.

Thanks guys,

Matt

Congratulations! Early Type C Graphophones are great machines: very 1890s in appearance, powerful (the 3-mainspring motor was advertised as running for one hour), and with interesting history. An article on the Type C ("Universal") Graphophone appeared in the December 2015 issue of the APS magazine. As I wrote there:

"The first talking machine to employ a six-inch mandrel. The last “business machine” to use a 100 tpi feedscrew capable of playing entertainment cylinders. The biggest spring motor ever put into a production Columbia
Graphophone. The most versatile talking machine in the early industry. The least effort in promotion that Columbia expended on a high-end talking machine. The greatest potential of any talking machine of the 1890s.
The worst failure to exploit potential of perhaps the entire acoustic period of the talking machine. There. I’ve managed to use every adjective I offered in the first paragraph of the article except for “smallest.” There’s nothing small about a Type C “Universal” Graphophone.

And today, the “Universal” still doesn’t get the respect it deserves. The only other comparable “business machines” of the 1890s sell (usually privately) for tens of thousands of dollars. Top of the line products? Collectors fall over each other to buy Victor VIs and Edison Operas, while “Universals” (in much smaller numbers) sit unsold at shows for less than $1000. The machine is the Rodney Dangerfield of our hobby."

Enjoy it!

George P.

Is this motor larger than the Type GG motor?

JohnM wrote: Wed Jan 07, 2026 9:42 pm Is this motor larger than the Type GG motor?

It's basically the same motor.

George P.

I agree 100 percent with George. Of the earlier machines, one of the most durable, difficult to find in complete condition, and under-appreciated phonographs ever. I happen to have come across mine and dug it as well as the cabinet that it sets atop of out of a boarded-up stone building in the Berkshires.

Thought I'd show off this seldom seen version of the Columbia Model C.

The Exhibition Model, fancy cabinet like the GG but slightly smaller. Sold for an extra $5
Chuck