The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

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

January 23, 1894: Thomas A. Edison was granted a U.S. patent (No.513,095) for a water-powered phonograph motor. Although a failure in the marketplace, Edison chose them as presentation machines for Czar Alexander III and pianist Josef Hofmann. For more images: https://forum.antiquephono.org/topic/82 ... mment-3739

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There is one that used to be on display at The Henry Ford Museum. A friend of mine also swears that he knew of one when he was younger, (like 60 years ago). He is not one to make inaccurate or mistaken claims, so I believe what he says is true. He's the type of person who can recite back from memory, word for word, something that he read years ago. Where it is today is anyone's guess.

In 1998-1999 we shot two Water Motor Phonographs for Discovering Antique Phonographs. One was at the Thomas Edison Historic Park in Orange, NJ. The other was in the late Ray Phillips' collection in California. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few more out there. Hofmann's? The Czar's?

George P.

Imagine the water bill you'd have if you had one! edisonplayer

They were notable for their liquid midrange.

We have a pipe organ at our church in Albany, Oregon with a valve for water power. It's curently powered by a compressor. DeeDee was playing for a service, pprobably 45 years ago, and the compressor failed. It also had a hand pump and DeeDee's dad and I pumped for every piece she played.

Jerry B.

There is indeed one at the Ford Museum, though now in storage and not displayed. It has a much later topworks mounted to it. No one knows what happened to the original. It was likely donated to Ford by Edison himself, along with hundreds of other artifacts. It may or may not have been in its current configuration when it was first donated.

The example at West Orange (which is the upper image shown on the APS Forum post) also has a later top works. You can see this by the size of the upper pulley, the presence of a trademark decal, and the plain pin striping. I shot it at an angle to draw attention to the more elaborate decoration on the Pelton wheel cover and to focus attention away from the later top works.

George P.

edisonplayer wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2025 10:19 am Imagine the water bill you'd have if you had one! edisonplayer

I've seen descriptions of universal motors for sewing machines which were driven from the water supply. Presumably water meters were less of a thing back then.