Phonoland

Does anyone know anything about the British company Primaphone? I have just acquire a rather unusual table model. Although its a table model it looks like a miniature cabinet gramophone with legs, lift up lid . It has double doors at the front to reveal an 8 piece fold out mahogany horn . The soundbox and tone arm are also unusual. The soundbox is attached to its own moving arm and is attached to the static tone arm by a rubber pipe.

I cannot fine anything on the web regarding this machine or the maker. any info would be appreciated.

Any chance of a couple pictures? I've never heard of these before, and it sounds very interesting. At first I thought it sounded like a "travelling salesman's" example, but with the fold out horn I'm not sure. Unless it folded out to give potential customers a better idea of how a full sized model would sound??
It sounds like you've found a pretty rare model either way.

I have photos but I have no idea on how to post them. Do you have a email account I can send them to or let me know how to put them on the forum.

I seem to recall that there is a picture of a similar machine featured in the V. K. Chew book produced by the Science Museum?

It is a superb machine and thanks for posting the pictures.

Steve

Now that's a machine I'd love to get hold of. I always had a fascination for the more off-beat designs. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Thanks for the px Mack. I've never seen anything like it before, & I've seen some strange machines in the last 30 yrs. I'd say you have a pretty rare machine there.

The Primaphone was vended (but not manufactured, I don't think) by Edison Bell. There were two models, a table and a floor model. I don't know about yours but the floor model's horn had nickel-plated numbered buttons on each panel to assure deployment in the correct order, the last panel acting as a locking-piece.

The rubber-tube tonearm obviated patents such as the gooseneck and assured light tracking despite the heavy 'static' arm. I forget whose patent covered the design, but it was also used by the Ediswan company in a well-engineered compact wooden-cased portable called the 'Attache'. My own example is now in the EMI archive and can be seen online at;

http://www.emiarchivetrust.org/detail.aspx

or go to the EMI Archive Trust site and put Ediswan into the search bar.

George Frow had a floor model which is now in storage with the British Library sound collection.

mack.fly wrote:http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc44/mack_fly/?action=view&current=75ecf8be.pbw

Wow! nice!

Well done, Howard, for posting the EMI link - they do have some very smart machines in there as I saw for myself two years ago.

It appears that our friends horn does also have numbered sections as mentioned.

Steve

Thanks Howard for the reference to the machine in the EMI achives. The tone arm looks to be the the same.

The fold out horn has indeed got metal numbers from 1-8 on the reverse of each petal. Each petal is set back slightly further back from the next to allow it to fold flat. Sadly the damage to two of the petals was no doubt caused when the order was not observed.

Mackfly,
I guess the big question is how does it sound? How does it compare to a HMV table or floor model for instance. Does it handle a particular brand or type of record better than others? Also, whats the motor like- cast or pillar & plate, single spring etc etc??
It really is an interesting machine!