The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

anyone have any thoughts on this one? is this just a long case edison home onto which someone has rigged one of those rear-mount columbia horn/arm assemblies?

Brian,

That looks to be a PHON-ARM attachment, specific for the Edison Home! WOW! That is a rare one. See picture A-21 in Fabrizio&Paul's Compendium for more info. I got to work on one of these once, and it absolutely BOGGLES the mind as to why Edison DIDN'T offer such a device, as the sound quality was A-1.

-MM

It's not a Columbia product as evidenced by the non-tapering tone arm. The device is called a "Phon-Arm" and is described & pictured on page 58 of Antique Phonograph Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gimmicks. It appears to be missing the tube section that fastens to the reproducer.

George P.

PS: Wyatt, you beat me! And I had forgotten we included another Phon-Arm in the 2nd Edition of the Compendium...

hmm... thanks for the information. I'll check my copies of those books later tonight. I did find some photos of another example online (sorry, I couldn't figure how to save the photos from the other web site to repost them here)...

http://www.phono-fun.com/PHON-ARM/

but I noticed that that one had a slanted carriage, wheres the one in the photo posted above has the horizontal carriage (with which one might I guess more typically use a cygnet horn). does this make any difference, or was that phon-arm device meant for one or the other?

The only Phon-Arms I've seen (two) were meant for the 45-degree carriages.

George P.

Interesting, this! I've read ( I think in Frow) that the Edison gang were toying with the idea of introducing their own tone arm and back mount horn device around 1908, but decided to go with the Cygnet horn . I think they made the right decision in terms of sound. There were be significant air leaks in the tone arm set up unless one kept it well greased.
Jim

That wouldn't be a "long-case' Home, either. Those are much earlier Model A's with green, limed cases.

That wouldn't be a "long-case" Home, either. Those are much earlier Model A's with green, limed cases.

These are mounted via a clamp under the mandrel. Was there a bolt-on version made too for Standards etc?

phonogfp wrote: It appears to be missing the tube section that fastens to the reproducer.

George P.

It's complete, just bad angle in the picture.

Chuck