New wax cylinder recording machine with advance ball.

[Viewmaster]

Here's photo of my homemade cutter for Edison wax cylinders.
It's an adapted Edison Ediphone dictaphone machine.

An advance ball system is used to ensure constant depth of cut. First time I believe that the ball system has been used for cutting round phonograph cylinders. It's adjustment is the round white circle top right .

The shiny cylinder grooves can just be seen.
The playback pick up ( a Shure cartridge) is at bottom left swung away from cylinder. This is mounted on a short tone arm fixed to a travelling carriage which tracks along the cylinder as it rotates.
The silver coloured home made cutter head is seen in the raised up position. (made from a 4 inch speaker with heavy damping to the stylus cutter mounted in a parallel motion mount).
There is also a microscope mounted at the rear....made from an old binocular plus eyeglass!

Although this machine records music it was designed to record Narrow band Television signals. I call it 'The Edikow machine' in memory of EDIson and Paul NipKOW who invented the rotating disc used for NBTV.
Albert.

[motorino]

very good work!

do you have some samples?

[Steve E.]

WOW. I can't believe I missed this one. You get the "cool posting award" for the first quarter of 2008.

[Viewmaster]

WOW. I can't believe I missed this one. You get the "cool posting award" for the first quarter of 2008.

Thanks Steve...just put a cheque in the post!
Albert.

[Viewmaster]

WOW. I can't believe I missed this one. You get the "cool posting award" for the first quarter of 2008.

BTW, big write up and close up photos of the machine here....
http://www.christerhamp.se/phono/noble.html
Albert

[Steve E.]

Do we get to see any of the video images?

[vitanola]

VERY NICE WORK, OM!

I don't believe that you were the first to use an anvance ball for cylinder recording, however.

Back in the late 1970's (1977 as I recall) I built an electric cutting head for two-minute cylinders that was do fitted.

The driver was taken from a Western Electric 540AW loudspeaker, damped with a (more or less) tuned rubber line.

This drove a recording stylus mounted in the stylus bar of a modified Diamond B reproducer. I found that the weight did not have sufficient mass to hold the recording stylus in full contact with the wax cylinder when recording at high volume, so I lowered its resonant point by attatching further weights and spring-loading it.

I then added a micrometer adjustment with an agate ball to regulate depth of cut. he results were excellent.

This head was later sold to a gentleman who undertook the manufacture of electrically recorded cylinder records.

[THEVICTROLAGUY]

actually it was Thomas Edison who invented the advance ball, it was used on all studio recorders. the advance ball system was in use in all acoustic recording studios. Edison used a large diaphragm holder and the usual sapphire cupped point stylus. the advance ball was not used in commercial two minute home recorders, a hinged diaphragm holder with the sapphire cutter glued directly to the diaphragm simply rode on the surface of the cylinder and physically moved up and down with the small eccentric movement of the cylinder itself. the cutter is quite efficient and the hill and dale grooves remain quite consistent, depending on the hardness of the surface of the cylinder itself.

[shawnborri]

I never thought I would ever seen one of these in person, yet own, and use it. It is an honor to have and use. It did not have a diaphragm or cutting stylus attached to it when I purchased it two years ago at the Union mechanical music show. Shown here with a copper stylus holder, and newer (had a run of two minute stili in 2001.) two minute stylus, and 2 rubber gaskets with burnt rubber between each layer 2 on top and bottom with 8 thousandths glass diaphragm. I am looking to find thinner diaphragms of glass (if a .003 could be made, that would be the stuff of acoustic dreams.) Last year I purchased the 97 1/3 studio feedscrew that goes with it (it actually has a chain reduction gear and so it turns one time, for every two of the mandrel, it made Edison Blue Amberol and Amberol masters.) I though am not sure this recording head was for cylinder recording, in a 1912 photo of the Edison diamond Disc master lathe, is a recorder like this one. I had to build a carriage to use it on my Edison Triumph, and it has to be would up all the way to pull it across the wax master, it is very heavy I have seen the cylinder lathes at ENHP and the left bushing was removed from the top casting, and a large flywheel added and solid brass mandrel to give more inertia, to pull the recorder across. This recording head came from a set of several. We may never know what kind of diaphragm was actually used on this but the glass sounds very good, clear consonance, and very sensitive. It is too bad the original diaphragm and dampening were removed, perhaps when they were no longer used, the engineer was told to remove anything that would spill the beans of its secrets. I also make my cylinder master blanks from an aluminated soap. The hydrated alumina gets filtered 5 times to be clear as a glass of water. The mold and compound are met at 232 C and the compound is heated to 270C, and filtered as it goes into the mold.

[shawnborri]

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This is some photos of the recorder on my lathe, and some photos of the most complete recording lathe at Edison Historical Park.

[shawnborri]

I have experimented making wax cylinder blanks since 2000, and have sold more than I can keep track of, somewhere over 10,000 of them. Their are two of us who make authentic metallic soap blanks in the U.S. and we are friends, Chuck Richards, and myself. I had always been pressured by the collector community in general to "get those blanks out to me as fast as you can, I want something to record on!!!! I want them Yesterday!!!!! With this attitude of the collector community, I certainly got the numbers out there, but for myself there was something lacking, the quality I longed for.... I honestly am a perfectionist, and making blanks just for numbers has never been fun! I am now concentrating on making as good of blanks as my imagination will make come to fruition. The hydrated alumina filtered over 5 times to water clear. The mold is heated to 232C as well as the compound poured in at this temperature. The compound itself is cooked to 270C (518F), and now follows a schedule of time and temperature following a graph (thanks to Chuck Richards). This is some pictures of blanks and equipment. Blanks come out of the mold at 2.3" in diameter, I also allow the blanks to cool onto a wooden core while still hot, to keep the inside true. The blanks are finished at 2.195, so you see a significant amount is shaved off, so the blanks are true. As I said the liquid alumina is filtered, and also the wax batch filtered from one container to another, and then again when it goes into the mold, the idea to reduce surface noise and pops to a minimum. Also while the wax is in a limpid state no bumping or shaking of the mold is permitted until the wax has hardened enough to retain it's shape, which reduces swish and other noises. The wax takes initially two days for the hydrated alumina, and an hour to weigh and check all chemicals, two and one half hours to make the batch of compound, and then two-twenty minute heating cycles. The mold is heated for one hour at 232, and the wax when poured in sets for an hour and a half before the core is taken out, and then 10 minutes for the casting to come out of the tube. 15 minutes to shape and 20 to shave down to a seasoning diameter. The blanks sit for 30 days to cure before being shaved to commercial blank size or to make a recording upon.