Reinventing the acoustic phonograph, 1928...

I find it interesting that at a time when the US phonograph industry was transitioning to all electrical systems, a few designers were still trying to perfect all acoustic playback and had planned to introduce new products. Here's a double-reproducer/double horn phonograph that probably never made it to market, obviously designed to compete with the Orthophonic Victrola, the Columbia Viva-Tonal, the Brunswick Exponential Horn Panatrope, etc. --

https://ia801702.us.archive.org/BookRea ... 4&rotate=0
(Click on image to make it full size for reading and printing)

(Other issues of "The Talking Machine World" can be found here -- https://archive.org/search.php?query=%2 ... 20World%22 )

A search of Google Patents shows nothing issued to either the inventor or the company cited in the article.

Joe

Neat stuff.

It always amazes me that the acoustic phonograph reached a level of perfection with the logarithmic horns just a little too late. It was at the time when radio was already doing significant damage to the phonograph business. The phonograph companies had to embrace radio or die.

I get the chance to work on this beast at a local museum, the Victor Electrola 9-40. What an interesting machine. It has an RCA Model 28 radio and an Orthophonic Victrola in an oversized Credenza cabinet. The tone arm has two heads, an acoustic pickup and and electric pickup and there is an acoustic valve that allows the sound into the Orthophonic horn to come from the acoustic reproducer or from a horn driver attached to the radio.

So you can play records acoustically or electrically or listen to AM radio through an Orthophonic horn. An amazing machine but somehow foreign to both the acoustic phono period and the radio period.

Mark.

"I get the chance to work on this beast at a local museum..."

Hi Mark:

What a great restoration project. The VE9-40 ( http://www.victor-victrola.com/9-40.htm ) basically had everything to offer, and should sound fantastic once completed.

I believe that the switcher valve has pot metal components, so some re-casting or 3D printing might be necessary, depending on its condition. The moving coil type loudspeaker is fitted with a 3.5 inch diameter Orthophonic diaphragm, according to "Look for the Dog," and should reproduce the same frequency range (100-5000 hz ) for both radio and electric phonograph reproduction as its all acoustic Orthophonic Victrola counterpart.

Joe

Joe,

We've had the radio playing (and it is LOUD!) and we've had records playing acoustically. But there is something wrong with the electric phono pickup. Might be a simple broken wire.

The acoustic valve does appear to be pot metal, but it operates and is not frozen. However, someone removed the knob (and big companion gear) that operates that valve. Also, the gears that spin the antenna are all swollen and frozen. So still lots of work to be done, but somewhat functional.

This is on display in Windsor CT at http://www.vrcmct.org.

Mark.