The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

What is this item?

It fell out of one of the VV2-55s, when I was rotating it around to get all the lose rattly things free. I believe it came out of the horn.

It looks like a linkage rod of some sort. If it was ever part of the machine, the machine is not now suffering from its loss. The machine works just fine.

It appears to be part of a manual typewriter, but I can't tell if it looks more like part of a Smith-Corona portable or a Royal standard.

Those certainly weren’t in any of the two machines I cobbled together.

Thank you both for the reassuring replies.

If the wire rod had come off the top of the motor board, the only place it could possibly have come from would have been the auto-brake mechanism. This, however, seemed unlikely, as the mechanisms on both my machines were both seemingly complete and functional (functional after cleaning, lubrication, and in the case of one, a minor bit of reassembly).

Oh, the mysterious things one does find from time to time inside talking machines!

In shape, if not in size, it looks oddly like the hood prop on my car (or on one I used to have). Could it have been used to prop up some smaller lid?
- Bill

Lucius1958 wrote: Wed Aug 13, 2025 10:12 pm In shape, if not in size, it looks oddly like the hood prop on my car (or on one I used to have). Could it have been used to prop up some smaller lid?
- Bill

It is too small and thin to serve as a prop for anything with any weight to it. And it is only about 4 and ¾" long.

Perhaps it was a jig of some sort to retain the auto brake assembly in its "off" position so that it wasn't accidentally triggered during assembly of the machine, something to be removed and discarded or reused. It may have fallen down into the horn, unnoticed, and then stuck there further down the horn when the machine was set vertically on its feet. I think I freed it up when fishing around down in the horn trying to get garbage out.