Phonoland

Hello,
I hope someone will recognize this spring-powered phonograph mechanism. Surely someone is looking for such a thing. It works, but has a problem: one of the governor's springs is broken where it attaches to the ball, indicated by the pencil in the photo. Please let me know what I should do with device. If I discovered it's valuable, I would painstakingly clean it up. Thanks very much!

It looks like the one on this page -- http://www.victrolarepairservice.com/motorcleaning.html -- which is dated to the mid-teens, and was originally fitted into a Victrola (enclosed horn model), possibly a VV-XI. You might want to get in touch with the shop to find out which model it's from.

Complete Victrola motors come up for sale all the time on sites such as eBay, and normally sell for $75-$200, depending on condition and rarity. (Some motors, used for outside horn models, known as "Victor Talking Machines" sell for far more.) Replacing the governor spring should be no problem, since most of the antique phonograph suppliers have them in stock, including the one linked above.

HTH,
Joe

Thanks, Joe! You're right, it looks just like the one they use to demonstrate the cleaning procedure. Amazing. I don't have the crank for this machine. Do you (or does anyone else reading this) know what kind of threads a replacement crank must have? I suppose it's old enough that it used a proprietary thread pitch, which may or may not be standard. Thanks again!

Michael D wrote:...Do you (or does anyone else reading this) know what kind of threads a replacement crank must have? I suppose it's old enough that it used a proprietary thread pitch, which may or may not be standard. Thanks again!

I don't know about the threads, but you can probably find out at the site I referenced above. Another place to check is Great Lakes Antique Phonograph -- http://www.victroladoctor.com/

They probably could tell by the photos. Normally, replacement cranks don't cost that much, so you might want to order one from the parts suppliers.

Joe