[78-L] Weird!!!

[Michael Biel]

From: "Bill McClung" <bmcclung at ix.netcom.com>
> My first response was "Not my problem. I'll be gone."
 
This is a bit self-centered attitude, don't you think? 

> My second was "How many of us have a machine to play a cylinder?

I would suppose that there are a fair percentage of us on this list who,
like many collectors I know, have cylinder machines.   

> And when did they stop manufacturing those?"

They haven't stopped yet.  Archeophone is still manufacturing them, and
there are several other individuals who occasionally offer a newly
constructed machine.  Because the cylinder dictating machine business
continued into the mid to late 1950s, there are machines convertible to
entertainment cylinders that were made in the 50s.  I have an electrical
machine from the early WW II years that was designed to play Blue
Amberols -- it was used for morse code instruction cylinders which were
being newly made -- and a post-war machine with a nice 8-inch
loudspeaker which was a classroom machine to play the Blue Amberol
dictating lessons which were still being manufactured in the Blue
Amberol process until at least the mid-1950s.  I have a metal mould for
one of theme which is marked being taken out of service in 1953 because
of a defect.  This machine plays Blue Amberols if I release the
feed-screw for a second or two every ten seconds or so.  I could modify
it to the proper threading but I rather not change it.  

If you want to buy an entertainment cylinder machine today, I think it
might take all of a half hour of searching on the web to find several
nice ones.  Make that 15 seconds.  I just found three for sale in 15
seconds.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com    


 



 >
 > ----- Original Message ----- 
 > From: "Julian Vein" <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
 > > Yesterday, Henry Allingham, who had been the world's oldest man,
was
 > > buried. He was 113 years old and the last survivor of WW1.
 
 > From: Steven C. Barr <stevenc at interlinks.net>
 > Well...at 113, he was 41 years older than I am (40 at the end of
 10/22/09)!
 >
 > I just hope that Alzheimer's doesn't get me before I can finish
figuring
 out
 > exactly WHICH 78's are included in my 55,057(+/-)
 >
 > Fortunately, I missed all the wars...including the US adventure in
Viet
 Nam
 > (I escaped the draft via signing up for the USAF, and then spent 3
years
 in
 > Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany [a ski resort!] followed by six
months in
 > Fort Walton Beach, Florida [a beach resort!]!)
 >
 > I have NO idea how many 78's I will own if I live to be 113...at that
 point,
 > I will have out-lived hundreds of 78 collectors...and thus probably
been
 > able to acquire their holdings at affordable prices...?!
 >
 > The REAL question is THIS...?! At some point in the not-too-distant
 > future, there will no longer exist ANYBODY who is interested enough
 > in 78-era music to search out...and PAY for...machines which can play
 > 78rpm phonorecords (i.e. both the speed and a c. 3-mil needle?!).
 >
 > The RECORDS will still exist...but methods to extract their sonic
content
 > may NOT...?! After all, one needs (1) a turntable which rotates at,
or
 > around, 78 revolutions (rotations?) per minute...(2) a needle/stylus
with
 > a 3-mil (+/-) tip!
 >
 > Na und?!
 >
 > Steven C. Barr