HMV automatic changer

Earlier this year, I visted the Revelstoke [B.C.] music museum and he demonstrated a very early record changer. It had 2 turntables and you stacked the left one with the records you wanted to play. turned it on and it picked the top one and dropped it on the right turntable, played it and the spindle dropped so an arm could shove!!! the record into the hole on the right. Hal Klassen[url][URL=http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0000457ca5.jpg][/url][/url]

Yes! The Automatic 1 of 1928. Cool machine, and rare. I saw one at the Bundaberg Museum here in Australia years ago. It was classed as a re-entrant model, though I'm not sure if it had the same sized horn as the 202/203 or something different.(maybe a sideways version of the 202/3 horn?) I cant say I've ever seem what's behind the grille on the Auto. They certainly sound fantastic, though I'm amazed that records didn't get smashed getting hurled into the side bin after playing. I thought it was an amazing, but scarry contraption! I'd love one in my collection. I don't know production numbers, but at 125 pounds in the UK, which would have made it around 250 pounds here, I can't see very many being sold, and it must be amongst one of the rarest HMV's out there.

Hi Hal:

Many thanks for sharing that! I've seen photos of this model, but never an "internal" shot showing the changing mechanism. If it sounds anything like it the VE-10-50 -- http://www.victor-victrola.com/10-50.htm -- it must be fantastic, indeed.

Joe_DS

Hi Shane, Joe, the UK pound was about $5.00 in those days, so that is over $600.00. You could buy a new Ford for much less!!!! The museum is operated by David Evans and his wife, They are from the UK and required 3 containers to move here. They were able to purchase an old [by our standards] 1912 building to house their collection in downtown Revelstoke' which is just down the hill from the Rockies. The collection is well worth visiting and the web site is http://www.revelstokenickelodeon.com , email mechmusic@aol.com He may have some internal pictures. My first thoughts, when he demonstrated it, were about the abuse to the records, and David said "not my good ones"
He operates nearly all the machines on the tour, including the strangest French Planchette player piano, Mills Violano and many more.
Hal

Hi Hal:

Great site!

(BTW, when I first clicked on the link, I got a "page not found" error message. I noticed in the "address bar" that the comma was included as part of the link. I edited the post to put a space between the URL and comma and it works now.)

If memory serves me right, I think that the Automatic HMV was equipped with the standard six foot folded horn. (Perhaps some of this boards experts could confirm???) I'm not sure if pot metal was used in the mfg of any of the changer's components, as was the case with the US products.

Joe, sorry about that----when you first try to learn how to type in your early 60s, misteakes [sic.] are more common than commas. I'm glad this site allows editing after posting. I spelled Evans and their wrong on the first posting

Hal Klassen wrote:Joe, sorry about that----when you first try to learn how to type in your early 60s, misteakes [sic.] are more common than commas. I'm glad this site allows editing after posting. I spelled Evans and their wrong on the first posting

I know where you're coming from. I literally have to type anything I post here, first, in Outlook Express (my email composer's box) so I can run it through the spell-checker. I'm not only an atrocious speller, but I'm also slightly dyslexic, and can't even spot some of the more obvious errors. In spite of how careful I try to be, I normally have to edit my messages at least twice after I post them to remove all of the "bugs."

But, back on topic, I was wondering if you have any of the re-entrant style gramophones/Victrolas in your collection? I only have a small Orthophonic -- the VV-4-40 -- at this time.

Joe, I only have a Peter Pan, a Mikiphone, and a lovely Victrola with the long cabriole legs which had been stripped of the workings, and to which I have adapted [without any alterations] a wind up mechanism. I have to admit I usually play my records on a 70s stereo [with 8 track].
My main collection is self playing pianos and music boxes.
Hal

My main collection is self playing pianos and music boxes.

Well, feel free to post anything you want about them. I know that a number of members of this forum also have a major interest in "mechanical music of the non-phonographic nature," such as player pianos, reproducing pianos, music boxes, etc.

Probably, for the time being, the best place to put the posts would be in the "Collector's Lounge" section of this board. If there's enough interest, we could probably add a new section/category just for mechanical music & machines.

I wondered if I would ever see another one, even in a photo. There used to be a phonograph museum near here, and they had one. But the owner died in 1978, and the heirs sold everything off.

But the one I saw before was a double-side one, with two turntables in addition to the feed stack. A ring lifted the record off the first turntable and turned it over onto the second one, where a guide and a ring centered it and kept it from crashing. The same arm played both sides. But it would not take 12" records (the one in your photo apparently can).

Other differences were that the vacuum arm pivot was behind the stack, instead of in front of it, the playing arm was farther to the right of the first turntable, so it could reach the second turntable. The console was longer, and the played-record stack didn't have a slot for records to slide down, but was just a square recess in the right end of the cabinet top. It was listed as the first record changer for home use (1927) in the museum caption card. It worked when I saw it.

Only this and the Lincoln changers used vacuum to separate the top record from the stack.

From the looks of the design of this one, it reverses the stack as it goes through it, requiring the slide-automatic sequence. The one I saw did not reverse the stack, because inverting the disc canceled out the reversing.

There were changers that preceded it, but they were manufactured for coin-op use. There were both cylinder and disc versions of the Autophone. but each record had its own turntable or mandrill. A ferris-wheel arrangement moved the records into place. Some enterprising people converted some Autophones into record changers after World-War 1, when New York City banned coin-op amusements.

It sounds like the early attempts at auto. changers were quite bizzar. I seem to remember the collection had several early juke boxes including a Mills ferris wheel and some others I had never heard of. I have been through the Phono Museum in St. Ann d Bopree? Quebec [near Quebec City] and saw a really fantastic collection of French, American and British machines including chrystal horns. I plan to visit Revelstoke again in the next year and will try to get more pictures and info. [I never thought to take a picture of the descriptive card]
Hal

Shane

It doesn't have a 202 horn inside it but something altogether smaller! It's surprising considering the cost of it from new that they didn't make their flagship re-entrant model with the biggest horn inside it. I know of two currently but neither owners will care much for the idea of pulling the grille off to measure the horns for us! Pity!

Steve