How an Edison Fireside Model B phonograph regained its sound

A boxed-up Edison Fireside Model B played its first test cylinders with a strange delay: sounds echoed about 360 milliseconds later. In a repair account, its owner suspected the needle might be tracing the same groove twice. The phonograph had come from his father-in-law, but getting it running meant tackling more than old grime. Its spring motor held only a short fragment of spring, and the governor, on-off brake lever and a chassis spring were missing.

For an initial test, the owner used a 12-volt motor and rubber belt instead of the broken spring motor. Three of the thirteen cylinders that came with the machine produced barely intelligible audio. A specialist later found that the diamond needle was sound, but its sideways pivot was stuck; he freed it and rebuilt the reproducer’s diaphragm. The account says the machine eventually sounded remarkable. Was the frozen pivot responsible for the poor first recordings, or was something else also at work?

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