??? about pre-1920s Victor 78 rpm records

Paul,

Wonderful photos thank you for sharing. Looking at you photos I remember seeing photos of the records before, but never the machine. How does it operate? Is it simply a heavy turntable/flywheel with a crank on top there? What a fantastic little device.
Have you played any discs on it? How's the sound?

Regards,
John

Really fascinating stuff. Thanks.

Hi John,

The working of the Columbia Toy is very simple: it is basicly a flywheel which acts as turntable, and is handdriven with the little vertical crank directly fitted to the turntable.The reproducer is a floating type similar as these were used by others.
The reproduction quality is not bad, and almost fully dependend on the quality of the records.The records I have do have some wear; the material is pretty soft compared with other brown wax records i saw.
Anyhow a fascinating piece of history!

Paul_Smits wrote:...Anyhow a fascinating piece of history!

Paul,

Yes it certainly is! My collecting focuses on the "Victrola Era", however these machines from the very start of the phonograph's reign are so fascinating to me. I wish they weren't as rare (f you know what I mean ) Are these wax discs susceptible to mold like wax cylinders? Is the stylus a semi-permanent one, sapphire or the like?

Regards,
John

Hi John,
Yes, the material is as far as I can judge more or less the same as the brown wax cylinders--though I remember having read that the composition of the wax could vary quite substantial --explaining that some brown wax cylinders seem more vonourable than others for mold.
The stylos is a saffire .
Do you aim at certain types/models for your collection?
Paul

Paul_Smits wrote:Hi John,
......Do you aim at certain types/models for your collection?
Paul

Paul,

Right now my collection focus is whatever comes my way. Right now it's mostly Victrolas. I do have a few dream machines I hope to find one day, a Columbia L-2, a Credenza(obviously!) an Edison C-250, and HMV 102 & at least one external horn Victor.

I have a real soft spot for plain old uprights, the common man's talking machine. I do find many of the off-brand machines very interesting, but they have their problems-pot metal, replacement parts, poor tracking in some instances. For some reason I find the little Vic. Consolette (4-3) a wonderful phonograph-I'd love to get one of them someday too.

The early phongraphs are really amazing however they are pretty much out of my league.

Thanks again for all the info on your Columbia, I've added it to my "virtual" collection.

Regards,
John

Gents,

Well I went searching on the 'Bay for the earliest Columbia disc record I could find (and afford! ) Columbia 514 recorded late 1901 according to Barr.



Sounds lateral to me. I played it on my VV-X first with a rebuilt Exhibition, then with my HMV No.4. It was much louder than I thought especially with the HMV. Even with all the records I have from the teens and twenties on up, it still amazes me to hear voices from over a hundred years ago. No computer file or CD can compare to leaning down close to that horn and hearing those voices and that music from the past. It still awes me! It's the closest thing to time travel. (that's one thing we've got over the radio guys, they can't pick up old broadcasts!) When you think how far back you can reach. I'm holding this shellac disc that has voices on it (of people who..) and was owned by people who could actually have remembered the Civil War, whose grandparents may have fought in the Revolution and on and on. It's something special...

Regards,
J.

Sorry R.C. I don't mean to be a stinker!