early electric pick up 1928

A very early - 1928 - electric gramophone (phonograph) pick-up, made by the Acuston company, Berlin, Germany. Electric pickups for playing the new electrically recorded 78 discs (essentially, 1925 onwards) only started to become widespread in 1927. So this one is early in the field. The design is directly based upon the traditional mechanical (acoustic) gramophone sound box. Unfortunately the magnets are totally inactive, and the coils are open--circuit - it would be too big a job to conserve. Instead, we had the idea of temporarily adapting it by using a cheap ceramic piezo-electric transducer. It worked surprisingly well! A U.S. Oriole 78 of 'Slu Foot Lou' by Frank Marvin is used to demonstrate the pickup.