Category Archives: Phonograph History

1939 Portable Sound System

Eighty-five years ago, the gentleman shown here spinning the records put his entrepreneurial skills as well as his tech savvy to work with this portable sound system he designed. He is one Fred Dingman, who authored two construction articles about how to build the sound system in the November and December 1939 issues of Popular Mechanics.

He reported that the investment was only about $25, as all parts are inexpensive, and he built the enclosures himself. The finished circuit put out 10 watts of undistorted sound to two 12-inch speakers, meaning that he could provide adequate volume for small halls or outdoors. It was designed as an inexpensive substitute for small dance orchestras, and he had no difficulty obtaining engagements for fraternity and sorority parties, dancing clubs, or lawn gatherings in a middle west university town.

At a reasonable rate, he provided the equipment, operator, and records. For those wishing to follow in his footsteps, the magazine could provide a complete set of blueprints. The system could also accommodate a microphone.

1924 Phonograph for Language Learning

A hundred years ago this month, the May 1924 issue of Science and Invention shows the latest development in language education, namely, the photograph.

The main breakthrough here is that instead of listening through a horn, the phonograph reproducer contains a microphone, which is hooked to an amplifier feeding headphones for the individual students. The teacher is also supplied with a microphone, through which she can address the students without any need for them to remove the headphones.

The phonograph is also equipped to cut disks.

Schmoller & Mueller Piano Company, Omaha, 1924

If you were in the market for a phonograph in Omaha, then the place to go would be the Schmoller & Mueller Piano Company, as shown in this ad from the Omaha Bee, May 6, 1924.

It wasn’t unusual for piano dealers to sell phonographs. This made sense, since they were hedging their bets–if phonographs meant people would stop buying pianos, they were covered either way. But this dealer took it a step further–just in case radio marked the end of phonographs, they had that covered, too. If you bought a phonograph from them, they would throw in a free crystal set.

1939 Typing Class

As shown here in the January 1939 issue of Radio Retailing, it looks like a few boys 85 years ago got the memo that the place to meet girls (and learn a useful skill) was to take typing class.

And this school was doing it right. Above the blackboard, you can see a loudspeaker, which is playing an amplified recording. The magazine notes that this delivers a rhythm, which is desirable for the student typists to develop a uniform touch.

1949 RCA Victor FM

Seventy-five years ago today, the January 17, 1949, issue of Life magazine showed these two FM offerings from RCA Victor.

The nine-tube model 8V90 stood only 33-1/4″ high and 31=1/4″ wide, but included standard broadcast and FM with “RCA Victor’s own simpler, more sensitive Frequency Modulation circuits.” The fine record changer featured a sapphire pickup with no needles to change. The 18th Century-style cabinet also featured a record storage compartment.

For those looking for an FM table radio, the seven-tube model 8X71 was beautifully styled in rich maroon or antique ivory-finish plastic.

1923 Street Grinder Upgrades to Phonograph

Just about any profession can benefit from adopting the latest in technology, as illustrated by this self-explanatory picture in the December 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics.

According to the magazine, this gentleman’s profession, somewhere in Europe, was a mendicant. That’s a word you don’t hear very often today, but it sounds a lot better than “beggar.” He had previously operated as an organ grinder (the article didn’t say whether or not he had a monkey), but constantly having to turn the crank proved too hard. Also, the hand organ was very heavy. Therefore, he invested in the phonograph shown here, which required cranking only occasionally after a few songs. Armed with a satchel full of records, he could share his entertainment and eek out a living much more easily.

Mimi Benzell’s Hi Fi, 1953

Seventy years ago, it was a Hi Fi Christmas for soprano Mimi Benzell and her husband Walter Gould. They are shown here with what Santa delivered, namely, a Graarard turntable, a Pilot tuner, a Bogen amplifier, a University speaker enclosure, and a Wilcox Gay tape recorder.

They are probably shown at their home, which, according to Wikipedia, was at 45 Cardinal Road, Manhasset, New York. The picture appeared on the cover of the December 1953 issue of Radio News.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from OneTubeRadio.com!

We present a hundred year old silent film, the 1923 version of A Christmas Carol starring Russell Thorndike as Scrooge. It’s a short feature, so the story is quite condensed into less than a half hour. This rendition is accompanied by recordings from that era. Thorndike is best known as an author, and you can find his author page at Amazon.

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California Ramblers, 1923

A hundred years ago tonight on the radio, you could listen to the California Ramblers performing over WEAF, New York. But it wasn’t just any broadcast, as seen from the clipping above, from the January 1923 issue of Talking Machine World. Due to the radio. Columbia records noted that the lid of many a long forgotten phonograph had been frozen. They fought back with radio, and purchased time on WEAF every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:15. Each broadcast featured a Columbia recording artist, and was broadcast right from the recording studio. If people liked what they heard, they could buy a record, enabling them to listen to it whenever they liked.

According to Columbia, listeners around the country had tuned in. The group is shown here, in 1931, in the June 1931 issue of What’s On The Air. You can hear them in their 1925 recording of “Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue”, below.

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Movies on your Phonograph: 1923

This illustration from the November 1923 issue of Science and Invention fits squarely into the category of very interesting things that never caught on for want of a practical application.

It is a system for showing motion pictures from your phonograph. The phonograph is busy spinning at 78 RPM, and this system allows you to use that phenomenon to project movies. The frames of your movie are printed on the edge of a paper disk which is placed on the platter, just like a phonograph record. Two bright lights shine on the image, and the opaque image is projected through a prism onto the screen.

A single disk will give you a movie of about 1/78 of a minute long. To provide for longer movies, the disk bends up automatically as it passes under the prism, which allows the layer below to be shown.

The magazine refers to it only as the “Jenkins movie machine.” That is probably a reference to Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934), a pioneer of early cinema. He went on to television, as the principal of W3XK, the first television station in the United States, which began broadcasts to the general public in 1928.