The poor London model of Edison's Diamond Disc machine looks like it had been tortured. The vertical section was there afterall, but a cable, wood block and some other things (part going into the horn) were missing. Someone had SOLDERED the horn on the top to another piece (sloppy shiney solder), I guess to keep it from dragging...poor soul of a machine. My impression is that without ALL the parts, there would be stress on both the record grooves and the diamond reproducer, which would be forced to take on the burden of moving the heavy pieces across the record...at least that's the way it seems to me.
Needless to say, the machine still sits with the seller...who is now a bit wiser, since I shared the photo and what I knew with her. She seemed not at all disappointed and actually fascinated to learn something about the poor mess. As for its WEIGHT. I've got an "AH-HAH!" I took the flashlight and checked out the left side where the 24 slots for records was. I could see that 2, that's TWO, thick metal weights were in place behind the slots. They went across the back, one high, one low. This was probably to balance the weight of the phono in the right-sided compartment. BOTH sides were equally heavy, and I mean heavy! I could not lift one corner. Wow, was all I could say. But again. This was a fun adventure and learning experience which didn't cost many bucks. It would not have been either without the help of this great group. :) I will, however, now keep an eye out for an Edison (table model) which could play my records! And I think I know a little bit about how these machines work...not a lot, but enough probably to just get into more trouble. LOL Oh, and I will wash the records with denatured alcohol before I put them away. One last question on STORAGE: Store records flat, right? But what do you put between them, and is a paper box OK ? Thank you all, Ger _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
