I had a wind-up read write dictation machine like these when I was a teenager. I think I picked it up for pennies at a jumble sale, early 1960s. It was ancient, even in those days. I had fun with it until I ran out of cylinder space, then stored it in a cupboard. I remember swapping it for a long case (grandfather) clock that always ran slow and stopped. I fixed the clock by cleaning and lubrication. When I moved house I sold the clock for a tidy sum.
This made me think of the old film noir Double Indemnity (Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck... ) where Walter Neff gives his murder confession on a machine like the ones you have shown us in this video.
A really 'fun' thing to do was to put a coin in the recorder tube blocking the voice from reaching the cylinder. Great when you have just spent minutes dictating an important letter!
Fantastic! I just bought one of these (record and play) at a flea market. I wasn’t sure what I had, but you have done an exemplary job of filling some of the empty space between me ears. Thank you. Now I just have to find a dictating/playback tube/horn.
Thank you so much such a wonderfull mechine in those years you were able to make a vedio demo. I am really think those days this system was so famous and people can record their voice and play back them. Its a marvel, Thomos Alwa edison is my Guru in inventions. As I am 67 years old I used to wonder how the technology devoloped along the time
Of course, Edison was producing phonographs with electric motors since 1888; the spring motor was introduced a few years later, to make phonographs accessible to those without electricity, and to reduce the price. As for replicating a recording stylus: the original styli were made of sapphire, not diamond (which was only used on the reproducers for Blue Amberols and Diamond Discs); but a usable cutting stylus can be made out of glass rod. Eric Reiss, in "The Compleat Talking Machine", gives a diameter of about .042" for a 2 minute recorder, and half that for the much rarer 4 minute recorder; so midway between the two should suffice for a dictation machine. The fidelity might not be as great as a cupped sapphire stylus; but it should do the job.
The playback/recording head is mounted on a moving carriage propelled by a feed screw. Therefore the playback movement is mechanical, not caused by the groove itself like on a disc record. This feed screw has a certain pitch (amount of threads per inch) which does not match the groove pitches of a commercial two or four minute music cylinder. Therefore if you were to play one on a machine like this the synchronization incompatibility would cause the stylus not to track the groove properly and literally scrape across the record at a different rate than intended playback.
What you are calling a turn table is actually called a platter. Turn Tables have platters along with tone arms, cartridges controls, etc. The turn table is a complete unit with the platter being one part.
so i made it a point that my favorite videos are from LGR, Techmoan, Databits, and 8-bit guy.... for whatever reason i thought you had the most subs from all of them
Leather dries up and oxidates over time. That fact that a 100 year old leather belt worked at all is pretty miraculous so don't feel bad for it breaking. I imagine that the life of leather can be increased if stored under controlled conditions, but I think this player was probably just stored under normal conditions.
Thanks, I now have a 1920's Dictaphone dictation unit, and two Dictaphone Cameo recording units, and one Ediphone dictation unit, sans the cutting/playback needle diaphram head. But today I found a complete Ediphone 20's dictation unit, that I've just started to clean up.......so, this helps a lot ......thank you!
I have 2 of these, one like this,that you can plug in a microphone into the side and one that looks like this one but is older. That one you push a button to talk ans release it to listen to and from the horn mouth piece. I have a shaver in a nice cabinet, that the UPS man asked me to help him carry into my apartment. Which I thought was funny as it is rather large, but not heavy. There are people who restore these, you just have to search online.
I had a wind-up read write dictation machine like these when I was a teenager. I think I picked it up for pennies at a jumble sale, early 1960s. It was ancient, even in those days. I had fun with it until I ran out of cylinder space, then stored it in a cupboard. I remember swapping it for a long case (grandfather) clock that always ran slow and stopped. I fixed the clock by cleaning and lubrication. When I moved house I sold the clock for a tidy sum.
That was a really cool demo of retro tech. I always enjoy watching your videos.
This made me think of the old film noir Double Indemnity (Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck... ) where Walter Neff gives his murder confession on a machine like the ones you have shown us in this video.
Watching this movie right now....
A really 'fun' thing to do was to put a coin in the recorder tube blocking the voice from reaching the cylinder. Great when you have just spent minutes dictating an important letter!
Are you a time traveller??
Fantastic! I just bought one of these (record and play) at a flea market. I wasn’t sure what I had, but you have done an exemplary job of filling some of the empty space between me ears. Thank you. Now I just have to find a dictating/playback tube/horn.
the weak motor could be because of the rectifier. it might have a copper oxide rectifier stack even, it's old enough.
Would switching it from AC to DC fix that? There is a switch since that motor runs off both
Image recording video on one of these like a CED.
Thank you so much such a wonderfull mechine in those years you were able to make a vedio demo. I am really think those days this system was so famous and people can record their voice and play back them. Its a marvel, Thomos Alwa edison is my Guru
in inventions.
As I am 67 years old I used to wonder how the technology devoloped along the time
Of course, Edison was producing phonographs with electric motors since 1888; the spring motor was introduced a few years later, to make phonographs accessible to those without electricity, and to reduce the price.
As for replicating a recording stylus: the original styli were made of sapphire, not diamond (which was only used on the reproducers for Blue Amberols and Diamond Discs); but a usable cutting stylus can be made out of glass rod. Eric Reiss, in "The Compleat Talking Machine", gives a diameter of about .042" for a 2 minute recorder, and half that for the much rarer 4 minute recorder; so midway between the two should suffice for a dictation machine. The fidelity might not be as great as a cupped sapphire stylus; but it should do the job.
You say something about playing cylinder is not a good idea play on these machines. What would happen?
The playback/recording head is mounted on a moving carriage propelled by a feed screw. Therefore the playback movement is mechanical, not caused by the groove itself like on a disc record. This feed screw has a certain pitch (amount of threads per inch) which does not match the groove pitches of a commercial two or four minute music cylinder. Therefore if you were to play one on a machine like this the synchronization incompatibility would cause the stylus not to track the groove properly and literally scrape across the record at a different rate than intended playback.
What is the maximum recording time? You mentioned 2 and 4 minutes cylinders but nothing for the longer ones.
The law firm of
Data & Bits
Do you have experience with cylinder shavers? I have one and can’t figure out how to get the spring loaded cutting blade to stay down or adjust.
I don’t, sorry about that.
What you are calling a turn table is actually called a platter. Turn Tables have platters along with tone arms, cartridges controls, etc. The turn table is a complete unit with the platter being one part.
Actually, to get real technical, it’s called a mandrel.
This is mentioned in the book, Think and Grow Rich ☺️
so i made it a point that my favorite videos are from LGR, Techmoan, Databits, and 8-bit guy.... for whatever reason i thought you had the most subs from all of them
Thank you for making me a favorite!
that's my favorite line up too
Leather dries up and oxidates over time. That fact that a 100 year old leather belt worked at all is pretty miraculous so don't feel bad for it breaking. I imagine that the life of leather can be increased if stored under controlled conditions, but I think this player was probably just stored under normal conditions.
Another great video! Guess you could say the recordable cylinder was the first CD-RW...haha
Was that the Beatles on 8 track I spied briefly??
Thanks, I now have a 1920's Dictaphone dictation unit, and two Dictaphone Cameo recording units, and one Ediphone dictation unit, sans the cutting/playback needle diaphram head. But today I found a complete Ediphone 20's dictation unit, that I've just started to clean up.......so, this helps a lot ......thank you!
So these units are simply a motor-driven wax cylinder phonographs?
I have 2 of these, one like this,that you can plug in a microphone into the side and one that looks like this one but is older. That one you push a button to talk ans release it to listen to and from the horn mouth piece. I have a shaver in a nice cabinet, that the UPS man asked me to help him carry into my apartment. Which I thought was funny as it is rather large, but not heavy. There are people who restore these, you just have to search online.
Looks awesome!
Amazing Video!
How much are they worth
Saw a govner on many steam engines. That is to say it controled things like pump speed , or DC generators.
don't let it get too hot around those drums
All this just because some people didn't feel like typing out a couple words?
since it's electric it's dieselpunk
belt breaks on camera
W.O.W.
Only Edison would make a lousy format totally incompatible with itself.
Yes very "cool"