Just read your article in the APS magazine: fascinating! Hope to see and hear the phonograph up and running in the near future! What most surprises me is how young Gillett was when he did all this.
Wow it’s such a struggle to build a complicated flawed design and make it work while staying true to the historical possibilities. It’s a monks job as the Dutch say. I envy your dedication! Good luck and thanks for sharing, Best Wishes, Wannes
You also have to consider the literature written around that time as well. People were in dire want of sound recording devices around that time. They wanted something quick and simple. Many couldn't wait. During that time of Gillettes writings the smuggling of phonographs into other countries from the States was a crime and risky. What's written in a book and blueprints is quite different than putting it into operation and only theory. Electric motors were crude. You can't having an arcing commutator when running under load. It gets hot. Plus a switching ebonizer where the weights controls the speed interferes with the polarization of the armature poles for the armature to rotate. Plus you collapse the current in the armature poles and induce current into the field coils causing resistance and causing electro dynamic braking effect. You somehow have to synchronize the ebonizer with the commutator switching. You also have to calculate governor droop. ( shaving load, recording load, and playback load.) Governor droop is calculated in rpm this way maximum full load + maximum no load ÷ maximum no load. It's difficult to maintain proper RPM when the armature freewheels for a brief moment and then the ebonizer engages under governor weight balance to maintain the proper speed. Back in the day to absorb arcing across a contactor they used laden jar type capacitors to prevent arcing making this type of perfect feat impossible using crude motor engineering. Shaded pole motors didn't exist back then and brushless DC motors didn't exist either. Columbia left off from electric motors in 1893-94 and went to Swiss counterparts like Palliard to obtain governor controlled Swiss spring motors and soon other phonograph companies followed suit for their phonographs because the motor technology wasn't up to snuff yet. Had Gillettes motor design been good the VE Victrola machines would have used that design in their 1924 and later electric motor machines. VEs used mechanical governor's. Electric motors were not practical in the 1890s so spring motors ruled as king. That's why there exist lost writings of older inventions because someone could build something better and for the demanding masses in the market back then. Plus spring motor automatons held the test of time. I could go on about other inventions that never made it perfectly in practical form. Good example is Leonardo DaVincis blueprints that never made a success in practical applications.
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Just read your article in the APS magazine: fascinating! Hope to see and hear the phonograph up and running in the near future!
What most surprises me is how young Gillett was when he did all this.
Wow it’s such a struggle to build a complicated flawed design and make it work while staying true to the historical possibilities. It’s a monks job as the Dutch say. I envy your dedication! Good luck and thanks for sharing, Best Wishes, Wannes
Well I sort of understood that. Thank you Pedro!
You also have to consider the literature written around that time as well. People were in dire want of sound recording devices around that time. They wanted something quick and simple. Many couldn't wait. During that time of Gillettes writings the smuggling of phonographs into other countries from the States was a crime and risky. What's written in a book and blueprints is quite different than putting it into operation and only theory. Electric motors were crude. You can't having an arcing commutator when running under load. It gets hot. Plus a switching ebonizer where the weights controls the speed interferes with the polarization of the armature poles for the armature to rotate. Plus you collapse the current in the armature poles and induce current into the field coils causing resistance and causing electro dynamic braking effect. You somehow have to synchronize the ebonizer with the commutator switching. You also have to calculate governor droop. ( shaving load, recording load, and playback load.) Governor droop is calculated in rpm this way maximum full load + maximum no load ÷ maximum no load. It's difficult to maintain proper RPM when the armature freewheels for a brief moment and then the ebonizer engages under governor weight balance to maintain the proper speed. Back in the day to absorb arcing across a contactor they used laden jar type capacitors to prevent arcing making this type of perfect feat impossible using crude motor engineering. Shaded pole motors didn't exist back then and brushless DC motors didn't exist either. Columbia left off from electric motors in 1893-94 and went to Swiss counterparts like Palliard to obtain governor controlled Swiss spring motors and soon other phonograph companies followed suit for their phonographs because the motor technology wasn't up to snuff yet. Had Gillettes motor design been good the VE Victrola machines would have used that design in their 1924 and later electric motor machines. VEs used mechanical governor's. Electric motors were not practical in the 1890s so spring motors ruled as king. That's why there exist lost writings of older inventions because someone could build something better and for the demanding masses in the market back then. Plus spring motor automatons held the test of time. I could go on about other inventions that never made it perfectly in practical form. Good example is Leonardo DaVincis blueprints that never made a success in practical applications.