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I picked up my second Edison Business Phonograph this past weekend and it came with an unusual horn. I don't know quite what to make of it.

The horn is about 11" long with an opening of about 7".

It is made from solid brass with a hammered finish. The seem appears to be tabs and solder that were hammered flat. The seam has been hammered to the point that you can't feel the seam with your fingers.

The tube that interfaces with the repro is made from a flat piece of brass with a seam that is joined with mating beveled edges and soldered. There is a fair amount of solder where the tube meets the cone, however, I think that may be a botched repair. The rim of the opening is not rolled, but is slightly bent over.

The inside is also hammered and the seam is hammered smooth as well.

There looks like there was a lot of effort put into this thing. I am wondering if it may be an old tyme funnel that just happened to be mated up with the machine.

Any ideas?

From an arts & crafts chook feeder?
I kind of doubt it started life as a phono horn, but stranger things have happened.

"An Arts & Crafts Chook Feeder" - Very Very Funny ! (I wish i'd said that ................Oh you will Oscar , you will ....)

I have seen something similar before though as some sort of Recording horn

That is so funny! Hahaha! Lolol!
What's a "chook"?

GShane!!!!.

"Chook" = Chicken, as in the rural Awstralian insult :

"I hope all yer Chooks turn to Emu's and kick yer Dunny Down "

Trans : "It is my sincere wish that in the fullness of Time all of your Chicken's Eggs turn out ot be those of the EMU and with their powerful legs destroy your outside convenience"

From : "The Barry Humphries guide to "Good Oil" Awstralian

Well I certainly see I am going get no help here! I guess I will just take my horn and go home!

Seriously, any ideas? I am not expecting it to be anything rare, I am just curious if it is true phonographica or something from the automotive world.

GMEMG wrote:"Chook" = Chicken, as in the rural Awstralian insult

Well, all I can say to that is I've never heard the word chook being used as (or as part of) an insult, and it certainly wasn't intended to be one.
Chook is just slang for chicken, and the third photo reminded me of the top cone off a metal chicken feeder that was laying on the ground in a friends chook shed when I was a teenager.
Apparently, we contaminated New Zealand with the word, and NZ has now contaminated Sam Neill with it too, so watch out USA...you might be next
It's also used as a term of endearment, mostly by mothers to kids, and by drag queens

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2I2_GBawWI[/youtube]

BUT...getting back to the horn, it may well be a commercially manufactured recording horn, or even a reproducing horn for some small obscure European machine .
The dimensions are certainly correct for a recording horn, especially if the long connector tube is a replacement, and the hammered finish might have had some (real or imaginary) effect on reducing resonance within the horn during recording- a bit like the walls in some recording studios.
The seam in the cone definately looks way too good to be done by a backyard handyman, and maybe even some regular sheet metalworkers. It's easy to imagine the original connector tube becoming stretched or torn after years of constantly being put on & taken off a business machine in a busy office.
Whatever it's origins, it's really very attractive.

Brad wrote:Well I certainly see I am going get no help here! I guess I will just take my horn and go home!

Seriously, any ideas? I am not expecting it to be anything rare, I am just curious if it is true phonographica or something from the automotive world.

Sorry Brad, I truly had no idea that such an innocent comment would fowl your thread so quickly.
I'm actually looking forward to what George might have to say about it. The more I think about it, the more I feel it is a recording horn.
I really cant see it being auto related. The hammered finish would then be purely decorative, and there would be no reason to make such a smooth seam, and who'd go to all that trouble just to pour oil or something down it. It's also too big to be food/beverage related, or for filling oil lamps or similar applications that might have called for a somewhat decorative finish.