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Hi,

I have relatively few early HMV gramophones, pre 1910 having focussed mainly on collecting later HMV machines, mainly portables.

I understand that these earlier motors, particularly those with the bevel gear setup are not as silent at the later 32, 207 motors but I’m wondering what sort of level of noice is acceptable. Am I expecting too much for them to be near silent?

After many hours messing with the governor set to of a HMV 00 (or Spiral 1) motor I’ve largely managed to remove most of the chatter from the governor, but this was achieved by having no lateral movement of the governor and making the pivots quite tight. This is the opposite to a later HMV motor where there is some play on the governor, but smooth running is achieved with no chatter at all.

This was the same with a Snr Monarch motor (bevel gear). If there was any slight play in the governor it would chatter and not run smoothly. Although it’s still very noisy compared to later machines it’s as silent as I can get it.

Question is really, is usual to have the governor setup this way in these earlier motors?

On the 00, the spiral gear meshes well but not as well as later motors, but there’s play there unless the governor pivots are tight.

Is there a specific way these should run, or am I expecting too much from a 116 year old motor?

This is a short video of the HMV 00 with the lid closed.

My experience is similar to yours, I only managed to reduce the motor noise by reducing the governor play to the maximum extent. But these early motors are indeed quite noisy compared to the later types.

That’s good to know!

I think I was expecting too much really. The noise is not as bad as was whilst the governor was slack, but wasn’t sure if it being tight was bad for the motor.

Also, I’ve noticed the grease doesn’t stay on gears so well on these compared to later motors. Maybe it’s just me!

leels1 wrote: Sat Apr 19, 2025 3:52 am I think I was expecting too much really. The noise is not as bad as was whilst the governor was slack, but wasn’t sure if it being tight was bad for the motor.

Also, I’ve noticed the grease doesn’t stay on gears so well on these compared to later motors. Maybe it’s just me!

Actually the best is that the governor turns without any play - evidently it needs to spin freely, but not move in the other directions. The other important factor is its alignment, but there are not many ways to play with the governor alignment on these early motors. As to the grease, I did not notice any problem on mine, except the large bevel gear, that tends to push the grease towards the outer edge, but this is to be expected.

Well, thank you. That’s confirmed things for me at least!
There’s enough grease on the bevel gear but as you say, most of it pushes to the edge.

This 00 motor does have the offset hole on one of the pivot bars, but it makes little difference when the positioning is altered.

Thanks for your reply!