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

January 18, 1908: Edward F. Leeds and George Rumpf filed a U.S. Patent application (later granted as #897,836) for a disc talking machine whose sound box remained stationary while the turntable traversed beneath it. Designed to avoid infringement of Berliner’s U.S. Patent that controlled any talking machine whose needle/stylus was propelled by a record’s groove, the machine was briefly marketed as an Aretino in 1908/09, and bears the distinction of being the first true mechanical feed disc talking machine known to have reached the marketplace. For much more: https://forum.antiquephono.org/topic/66 ... mment-3090

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Very interesting mechanism. Thanks for posting.

An attempt to get around the Victor patents? edisonplayer.

Thanks for your post. I didn't realize those machines were that late probably because rear mount machines were well established by 1908.

Thanks, Jerry B.

Amazingly, there are TWO different styles of motors for these rare machines. I've rebuilt both variations in the distant past.

Phono-Phan wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2025 9:17 am Very interesting mechanism. Thanks for posting.

You're welcome, Ken.

edisonplayer wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2025 9:24 am An attempt to get around the Victor patents? edisonplayer.

Absolutely.

Jerry B. wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2025 9:42 am Thanks for your post. I didn't realize those machines were that late probably because rear mount machines were well established by 1908.

Thanks, Jerry B.

You're welcome Jerry. The moving-turntable Aretino was Hawthorne & Sheble's last gasp for survival in the face of Victor's legal onslaught. It's a flimsy, cheaply-made machine; possibly only a trial balloon to see if it could circumvent Victor's US Patent #534543. I've often wondered, had it been successful, if H&S might have incorporated the design in its Star machines. A guy can dream...

phonospud wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2025 1:15 pm Amazingly, there are TWO different styles of motors for these rare machines. I've rebuilt both variations in the distant past.

I wonder if the earlier variation was really worse than the later one!

George P.