Contextual Associations
This Edison Home Model B cylinder phonograph is a totally mechanical (non-electrical) acoustic stylusphone idiophone designed and made in the U.S.A between 1905 and 1908 but also introduced to Europe and elsewhere in the world. The initial Edison Home phonograph was introduced in 1896 but subsequent models of it introduced small mechanical and decorative changes. From the copyright information found on the ID plate of this instrument (detail #1), it was possibly manufactured in 1906. The first Home phonographs cost $40.00 in 1896; subsequent models, such as the one pictured here, cost $30 when new. Whether its price was $40 or $30, it was unaffordable for much of the American population of the time. If an owner wished to outfit this phonograph with a large external horn (such as the one seen in gallery #1) and its accompanying support, they would have to pay extra. This particular Home Model B came out of a house in Newton, Iowa, just 18 miles to the west of Grinnell. It came with a custom-made wooden box containing nearly sixty 2-minute cylinders (almost all of them Edison Gold Mould [sic] cylinders), possibly the original owner’s entire collection of 2-minute cylinders. All but two or three of these phonograms are to this day in good, playable condition and are part of the Grinnell College Early Phonograph Collection. This Edison Home Model B phonograph may possibly be in original condition since it purportedly was bought out of its Newton, Iowa, home by an antiques dealer who then sold it in as-is condition to the individual who gifted it to Grinnell College. It is still in excellent playing condition after more than 120 years.
Description
Unlike the Columbia Eagle cylinder machine found in the collection, most of the operational machinery of Edison cylinder players, including the Home Model B, is located in its box-shaped case, out of sight on the bottom side of the case’s top board. Only the phonograph’s mandrel, its drive screw, its reproducer and carriage (the phonograph’s ‘Model-C’ reproducer, removed from its carriage, is seen in detail #2; its bottom side, which comes in contact with the cylinder being played, is shown) and guides, and part of its motor’s belt are visible when in operation. Beneath the top board is to be found the spring motor, the governor, all the gearing, and the other half of the drive belt that transmits the power produced by the motor to the mandrel on the top side of the wood case (detail #3). The spring motor, which needs to be wound up before the playing of each cylinder, is prepped by turning clockwise the removeable hand crank that protrudes from one side of the phonograph’s case (gallery #1). The top board of the case is hinged at the top of the case’s back sideboard and can be propped open with the aid of a metal support so that the underneath mechanical parts can be reached for lubrication and repair (detail #3). The carriage that houses the phonograph’s glass-tipped reproducer/stylus moves along the length of a 2-minute cylinder mounted on the mandrel at a controlled pace of 100 phonogram grooves per inch as the mandrel rotates at a standardized speed of 160 revolution per minute. All this precision is controlled by: a) the governor, which regulates the energy output of the spring motor; and 2) gearing and the drive belt, which collectively coordinate the rate of rotation of the phonograph’s mandrel and the drive screw that controls the rate at which the reproducer carriage moves laterally along the length of the cylinder (in detail #4, the drive belt can be seen at the far left and the finely-threaded drive screw in the center of the image). Two cone shaped horns came with the phonograph: 1) a small, standard-issue, metal horn that slides onto a shaft at the back side of the reproducer (gallery #2); and 2) a large horn with its own metal stand (purchased separately from the phonograph) (gallery #1) that is linked to the shaft at the back side of the reproducer by a short length of rubber tubing. When not in use, an arched wooden top is placed over the exposed parts of the phonograph and held shut with flanges found on each side of the box-like case (gallery #3).
Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production
The player takes a two-minute cylinder and slides it onto the phonograph’s mandrel while the sound box carriage (including its attached horn) is at its raised position and so that the starting point of the phonogram’s groove is situated near the phonograph’s drive belt; a swing arm is then brought into contact with the open end of the mandrel and the arm’s locking lever is engaged by pressing it downwards (detail #5). The player then uses the motor’s crank to fully wind up the enclosed spring while the machine’s on-off switch is in the off position. When ready to play the chosen phonogram, the operator slides the main switch to the on position and the governor, gearing, mandrel, and sound box feed screw all start rotating. The operator then slides the soundbox carriage to over the left end of the cylinder and lowers the soundbox until one end of it contacts the drive screw and the stylus end comes in contact with the surface of the rotating cylinder (detail #6). The soundbox and stylus then start to move along the length of the cylinder at a consistent pace (covering 100 passes through the groove spiral per inch of cylinder while rotating at 160 times per minute). When the performance captured on the cylinder comes to an end, the player lifts the stylus and soundbox off the cylinder, slides it all the way to the left, turns the motor off, and releases and opens the mandrel swing arm before removing the cylinder from the mandrel.
Origins/History/Evolution
The cylinder phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. His machine was driven by a hand crank and used a cylinder made of tin foil. By 1906, when the Home Model B was first marketed by the Edison company, a number of technological advances had accrued both in the material science of cylinder phonograms and the mechanical design of phonographs to allow the nascent recording industry, and actors in it such as Edison, to produce marketable machines affordable to a large segment of the public. Edison stuck with cylinder phonographs longer than any other company (Columbia, in 1910, discontinued production of cylinders and cylinder machines in favor of discs and disc phonographs, and Victor had from its get-go around 1900 produced only disc phonographs). Between about 1911 and 1929, Edison was the only major company still producing cylinders and cylinder phonographs. Production of Edison Home phonographs ended in 1913, when the last Model F of the line was produced. Some attachments and accessories for Home phonograph models continued to be available until 1921.
Bibliographic Citations
Frow, George L. 1994. The Edison Cylinder Phonograph Companion. 1st American ed., newly rev. and enlarged. Woodland Hills, CA: Stationary X-Press.
Reiss, Eric L. 2003. The Compleat Talking Machine. 4th ed. Chandler, AZ: Sonoran Publishing, LLC.
