Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs
Stereo? In a wind-up phonograph?  I don't see how that could have been possible with acoustic phonos, since they have no amplifiers. Perhaps this one was some very special (and expensive) design, the only one of its kind. The only thing I can figure is this is a wind-up phono with a battery-operated tube amplifier (four 01As or other very early power amp tubes in push-pull, two per channel?). I went back and took another look at one of the photos of the innards; I thought I saw a speaker with a torn cone in the cabinet. Even at that, I still can't see how an acoustic pickup system (for want of a better description) could be made for stereo reproduction. The few wind-up phonographs I've seen (in photos; never seen one up close) have all been acoustic and mono.
BTW, I wonder if anyone ever tried to convert a wind-up phono to use an electric synchronous four-speed turntable and a tube-type or solid-state amplifier just to preserve the cabinet, after the spring eventually broke or something else went wrong with the original mechanism. |
At some point I saw a vintage ad for such a thing(where and when escapes me).
It was totally possible in the mechanical era as both lateral and vertical cut records were in production at the time....some of the early stereo LP formats used one method for one channel and the other method for the other channel so it is not a radical leap to have done it that way in the mechanical era.
I can't begin to fathom why you would think than an electrical amp would be necessary back then...A skillfully engineered acoustic pickup piped to two suitably separated exponential horns(which are acoustic amplifiers) would perform just as well as any acoustic phonograph that was popular at the time.
Some Howard restor-a-finish lightly scrubbed on(go harder in bad spots) with 0000 steel wool then wiped off with paper towels a few minutes later should work wonders.