The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Many of us get a great deal of satisfaction bringing an old Edison back to life. With most models, finding replacement parts is rather easy. The main exception is the Edison Gem because there is so much variation. Gems were made in models A through E but that is misleading. If every variation used a different letter designation, the Edison company would have run out of letters and they would have had to double the letters. For example, some key wind Gems wound clockwise and others counter-clockwise. If you run into a project Gem that needs motor parts or an extra small reproducer, step back and consider the fact that it may be a long term effort. What do others think? Jerry Blais

This is great information Jerry. I have looked at Gem machines before but hearing that they may be a project for a few years down the road.

Thanks
Andrea

I recall an article written by Al Sefl back in the 1970s in the Antique Phonograph Collecting Society Newsletter where he described something like 20 variations in the Model A Gem. Jerry's right - you want to find a Model A running and complete! Model Bs aren't nearly so hard to restore and complete, thank goodness.

George P.

I agree, Gems can be an absolute nightmare to try and restore and the fact that they weren't originally assembled in the Edison factory with any great care or attention doesn't help either. For anyone attempting to restore either an A or B Gem, Mike Field in the UK wrote an excellent booklet back in the 1980s detailing exactly, with an engineers precision, how to retore these great little machines. I found it invaluable when attempting to restore a B Gem I'd bought 20 or so years ago.

Fortunately, the booklet has now been reprinted as part of the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society's "Reference Series" and is available to the USA for $11 including postage. For anyone interested, details can be found on http://www.clpgs.org.uk and follow the link to Reference Series.

Regards

Tim W-W