The First Power Amplified Talking Machine to market
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- Restored by self, this is the first ever public demonstration on the internet of the Columbia BC higham amplifier cylinder phonograph.
These machines are not so very rare, but, almost none of them play today. Here the original amber wheel and friction shoe were recreated from new materials, about 25 years ago, by myself. It still plays perfectly loud and clear as new today.
The horn becomes a gun barrel with those loud bangs in the cylinder, love it.
I've read about how the Higham Friction Amplifier works (in Eric Reiss's Compleat Phonograph) but I've never seen one in action, thank you for demonstrating it, it's quite extraordinary!
Excellent demonstration! The same principle was used on the very early self-playing pianos. In 1885, Hupfeld made their 'piano playing mechanism No 10' which used a large rotation cylinder and a set of 'kicking cams' to amplify the small movement of the keys reading the card disc into sufficient force and displacement to push down the keys of a piano. Early electric typewriters also used the same principle.
Wow! Even on your video recording I can tell this is really loud compared to a standard reproducer! I'm hearing the sound play off of the room. That's loud!
You are correct about the experiments (and even public demonstrations) of amplification using compressed air. I think I ran across a paper somewhere on someone attempting to build one of these compressed air amplifiers. That would cool to see and hear!
Thanks or sharing!
I wonder how much more you have to wind it. Compressing air even to just a low PSI is a lot of work. All of the work done by the machine has to come off that clockworks. I assume it also uses a heavier spring on top of being longer in order to generate the extra torque to run the pump.
Just a little bit later, I think Victor created one that plugs into the wall called the Auxetophone.
@@christo930 The air compressor was usually done by external electric compressor. This a rarity.
@@stratocat9999 I was confusing the air version for the spinning mechanical amplifier made from an amber disk. Columbia BC cylinder gramophone. The disk is powered by the mainspring. There is a pretty good demo of it on youtube.
Ahh, mechanical power amplification! How primitive, but how ingenious! Things really were difficult before the advent of electronics. Thanks so much for posting.
Amazing! Thanks for posting
Plays with very little distortion. VERY impressive sound. Thanks for this posting.
Amazing volume and surprisingly good sound quality. I've always wanted to hear one of these play. Saw such a Columbia many years ago but was inoperable. MANY THANKS for this highly instructive video.
I wouldn't be surprised if the playback is louder than the orchestra that originally recorded it... I'd like to bring this along in a Model T to blast at anyone who dares play techno on massive subwoofers. Bring it on!
This is a very well built machine. I collect these and this one is perfect for a concert hall.
***** The tube has music recorded on it's surface, it has a groove similar to that of vinyl records.
It's not a tube it's a cylinder. Jeeeezzzz
I still wonder whether Higham ever experimented with using this technology for recording purposes: it might have had far more sensitivity than regular acoustic recorders...
Fascinating demonstration. Thanks for posting the video.
Wow.. A legendary product of audio invention... I felt so glad.. 😊💐
That sounds really great Reid!
Lovely sound and mechanism. Also: awesome theremin and Theremin speaker in the background of the shot!
I think you did an admirable job, certainly very loud!
@edisonphonographfan You are a God. Nobody has managed to find the title of this song ever since this video was first uploaded in 2008. God knows (you know) how often I've listened to this song in the hopes of knowing the title one day.
The Coon Band Contest by Arthur Pryor
I regret to say that I do not have a Model T, although I would absolutely love to own one one day. Believe me, I'd drive it EVERYWHERE as well with my trusty gramophone.
This is not a "Power amplified" talking machine. There are no electric parts that I can see. It´s purely mechanical and acoustic.
The amplified grammophones, with electronic tubes came much later. In late 20s - early 30s. But this machine really worked and soounded very well!
This is a *mechanically* amplified machine: the friction wheel provides the source of power, which is modulated by the movement of the stylus.
Yes it is. "Power" does not necessarily mean "electricity".
Brilliant, thank you very much sincerely 🙋♂️
¡Gran trabajo el suyo señor! Gracias por preservar estos testimonios.
Beautiful restoration. :) I love all these old machines, but how did they manage to record or capture all that sound with all those instruments? The sensitivity is just amazing and the clarity is just superb. As specially when you consider the method they used for recording back then. Thanks for sharing this great video.
Honey, are you vacuuming? No, dear, I'm playing the photograph
Everyone called those machines "Phonographs", Columbia called them "Graphophones", here in Italy they were also advertised as "Grafofoni" whereas we called "Grammofoni" (Grammophones) other brands' machines ;-D
hee hee, sounds like it`s farting when you release the brake
Hi, Very nice machine, I was shown one of these when in Melbourne last, I didn't see it playing, they really are an amazing machine. Thanks for posting.
Nice sound but what exactly makes it amplified. Can you do another video explaining this?
It works by using the small signal from the needle to vary the pressure on the scraper resting against the moving wheel. This modulates the sound of the scraper on the wheel to match the signal picked up by the needle. This machine was roughly contemporaneous with the auxetophone, which used roughly the same principle but with pneumatic operation; a compressed air stream was modulated by a comb valve driven by a needle. It is also analagous to the electric valve amplifier - a thermionic valve uses charged plates to modulate an electron beam. In all cases, a small signal is used to steer a large signal, so the large signal becomes a copy of the small signal.
They could only record in black-and-white in those days.
XD im dying
+Josiah Cole We should keep this monochrome 'compact cylinder' thing a low key affair :-)
The amazing fact is that every record was a one-piece, there weren't master copies so artists had to redo the piece for every cylinder that was recorded ;-D
@@Renatodonadio Sorry, not true. The 'one at a time' limitation only applied to the earliest brown or white wax cylinders that were recorded prior to January 1902. After that date, all commercial cylinders were produced from a mould made from the original recording. As many as 150 copies a day could be produced from each mould. Initially, these copies were pressed on hard but brittle black wax, by 1912 all cylinders were celluloid. The one heard on this Columbia 'Graphophone' BC model is most likely a Columbia 'unbreakable' celluloid cylinder, if I had to guess, circa 1909. (I suspect it may be running a little too fast).
If you are interested in learning more about cylinder records, there are many excellent internet sites that deal with them.
Here is one such randomly chosen example: members.tripod.com/~Edison_1/id16.html
That really is loud! It sounds very good too! Where did you find this one? What is the name of the song?
Thanks
The Coon Band Contest by Arthur Pryor. That is the song title and band name
A noticeable improvement over the conventional reproducer.
Not just the Theremin but that whirling disk color TV! What the FCC chose of CBS's first gen color. Then RCA gets in the ring and KO's the crumblin' CBS and they are down and out.
My best way of thinking how this works is like a violin string and bow but the string is real short and is instead the vibrations of the needle and they become amplified?
if you can obtain a decibel meter when you make your next BC video and hold it about 1 meter from the horn, to show people just how loud these things get
Lovely! Wish I had one in my collection......
I was surprised, though, at how *slowly* the friction wheel is turning; I had imagined it would be much faster. And the little saxophone-like 'squawk' as it starts up.....
very good amplification!!!
Wow ! Thank you for sharing this machine ! I have only read about the Higham reproducer. What make cylinder is being played ? Would it be possible to do a side-by-side playing (before & after?) of the Columbia BC followed by the same cylinder on a conventional Columbia or Edison machine, so we get a comparative sense of the volume ?
This piece, but not this exact recording: ruclips.net/video/13uY47ryG7w/видео.html
The version here sounds like Indestructible Military Band
Oh those crazy kids.
Wonderful.
That's the sound of the friction wheel dragging against the 'shoe' as it comes up to speed.
Spike Jones before Spike Jones.
Very nice unit.
Magnifique. Le don est bon!
How does this work?I can remember reading of an early Edison Telephone Earpiece where you had to turn a Hand Crank to keep it working and it was used in combination with a Carbon Button Microphone.Could it be something along these lines or something completely different?
very nice phonograph, but one thing i dont understand,
why on earth would you want a power amplified one, they were already loud enough as they were
Wow. Thank you.
Fascinating!
cool do you have any info on the compressed air type? great work with this, its really neat what was mechanical before electrical amplification. thanks
ruclips.net/video/J7SV65DFNy8/видео.html
Couldn't help but notice the early RCA tube theremin and speaker in the background. Any info on it?
What piece is playing? I'm a trumpet player in a youth orchestra and I'd like to play this with a couple of brass instrument playing friends to wake everyone up at 5 in the morning at the annual "fin de semaine intensive". I'll probably lose half of my friends.... but it's probably worth it :P
This: ruclips.net/video/13uY47ryG7w/видео.html
Interessante que era o início das gravações sonoras! Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil
How does the amplifier mechanism work?
Just how exactly is this so-called 'mechanical amplification' accomplished?
The stylus read the grooves on the cylinder and transmitted the vibrations through a membrane at the base of the amplifing cone
@Jeffrey314159 The stylus is connected to an arm that has a shoe that rests on top of a small spinning cylinder of amber. The amber cylinder and shoe creates friction that causes the arm to oscillate. A second arm is connected from the shoe to the diaphragm of the speaker horn. This amplifies the input signal from the needle by combining it with a much stronger oscillating frequency.
Wrong.
I see, but what frequency is that component oscillating at? Would have to be a frequency of like over 16 kHz to avoid adding it's background noise to the playback
IMPRESSIVE!
Great song, do you know what the title is?
ruclips.net/video/13uY47ryG7w/видео.html
Why does it fart every time you turn it on?
Whimsical effect.
kurtdog88 It must be full of whimsy, then! Either that or lots of cabbage & beans.
"Stiction friction". The "squonk" is the the sound of the Higham friction shoe breaking loose from static (non-moving) friction. Stiction is the very basis of the Higham principle of mechanical amplification. How so? Well, try to imagine by seeing in your mind's eye that the tiny up-to-down undulations of the cylinder record will impress themselves as momentary increases and decreases of pressure on the stylus bar. When stylus bar (it is pivoted like a see-saw) pressure goes up, the leading-end of the friction shoe linked to its other end =digs into the friction wheel= and tries to rotate the friction shoe =with= the wheel. But the shoe can't rotate very far because it is =linked at its other end= to the large mica diaphragm of the reproducer. So, the mica diaphragm of the reproducer gets pulled upon, inhaling a tiny bit of air =into the reproducer chamber=. Now a tiny fraction of a second later the record groove undulates the =other= direction and =the friction shoe lets go its grip= , the stiff, springy mica diaphram relaxes; and in going back to stasis, pushes a tiny puff of air =out of the reproducer chamber=. This cycle repeats in lockstep with the audio waveform represented the record groove. The fart-like squonk noise is highlighted in this video that I made over 8 years ago to show that the Higham reproducer is working very well. The least bit of oil, even from an oily finger touch, if it gets on the friction shoe or friction wheel, will erase the "squonk" action and mute the performance.
Hello Mr. Welch, is there a way that I can contact you directly about this reproducer? Leeknightscross@comcast.net Many thanks, Lee Baker, Richmond, Va.
works on baked beans, edison fartinola
Is the air pump powered by the spring?
It's still a mechanical recording; non-electronic amplification!
Wouldnt I love one of these!
So, where is the power amp? All I can see is a reproducer and horn. Where is the compressed air?
@patoman881 That is apparently the driver energy for the mechanical amplifier. But I don't know how it works.
Does anyone make the amber wheel and vulcanised shoe?
How does it work? I clicked the link, but the page says "SOL error"
Very cool
Don´t stay in front the horn or your eardrums will explode!!!
Your name is Reid Welch? Are you related to the late Walter L. Welch?
No relation to either Oliver Reed or Walter Welch. Just a funny coincidence that my name (it is my real name since 1954) seems like a take-off of their names.
@@reidwelch8419Would you happen to know the name of the song that's being played here?
Before farting sounds became funny and popular...
Inacreditável!
What is the music? Sounds like a two step or cakewalk?
ruclips.net/video/13uY47ryG7w/видео.html
Did it sell??
Where might I find an amber wheel and friction shoe for my BC? Thanks, Roy
I am also in need of these pieces
@@paulhebden3934 I eventually gave up and sold my BC....
@@roybendure2625 Thanks
how many 2 min cylinders can you play on a full wind of the springs????
Looks like quad spring so id imagine 3-4 records worth.
What song is that playing?
ruclips.net/video/13uY47ryG7w/видео.html
very nice!
Wow, that's really swell wow I like it
What song is this?
ruclips.net/video/13uY47ryG7w/видео.html
Pardon my ignorance, but what is the upper, slower moving revolving cylinder just below the horn for?
I don't know but the inner brass part gets longer as the horn moves along.
It's moving the needle along the clinder, I think.
Amazing
Amazing!
i wouldn't like to be your neighbor :)
Cool
What's with the poot sound?
😇😁%0
*porp* WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR