The talking machine world (Oct-Dec 1921)

November 15, 1921 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 6? REPAIRS TALKING MACHINE TROUBLES AND HOW TO REMEDY THEM Conducted by Andrew H. Dodin INFORMATION FOR REPAIRMEN Morsemere, N. J., October 29, 1921. A. H. Dodin, Care Talking Machine World: Your name has been referred to me in my endeavors to get information regarding the repairing of talking machines. It frequently happens that while visiting various homes in connection with my business of tuning and repairing pianos and player-pianos I receive requests to repair talking machines, or am asked if I do such work. Not being acquainted witli the talking machine mechanisms I should like to know if there is any shop or place where T may gain such information. I thank you in advance for any information you may give me. — George P. Kirsten. Answer. I do not know of any shop w'here 3-ou could learn the business of repairing talking machines at the present time. The Victor Co. permits any man who is employed by its dealers to go to its factory in Camden, N. J., and take a course in adjusting its machines, and I believe the Edison and Columbia companies do the same, but I do not know whether they extend this privilege to anyone not employed in one of their agents' stores. I would suggest that you get from various companies the little instruction books that they send to their dealers, and if you make a good study of them and also take a motor and take it apart and study the various parts and their relation to each other in the construction of the motor I am quite sure that it w^ould not be very long before you would be able to handle most of the repairs that would come your way. I am always ready to give you any assistance that I can and will be pleased to answer any questions which you may w-ish to send me in reference to any troubles you run across in your repair work. * * * Watch Out for Chilled Springs As it will not be long before cold weather will again be with us, together with the usual busy season for talkinc; machine sales, I believe it IS the right time to again caution dealers in the matter of delivering and setting up machines in cold weather to avoid spring breakage and other troubles. It also happens frequently that a machine is delivered on a cold day, set up in the home and then put out of order through the breaking of a spring during the flrst winding. .\s has been pointed out on previous occasions, the talking machine spring is a highly tempered piece of steel and as such is subject more or less to tem-perature changes. It frequently happens that a new machine is taken from a rather chilly warehouse, kept out in the air on a truck for several hours and then installed in the home where the temperature is at seventy degrees or more. Cold makes all steel brittle, and when the enthusiastic purchaser seeks to play a record at once to try out the newmusical instrument the cold and brittle spring refuses to stand the strain and snaps. A great many dealers realize this condition and warn customers regarding it. One dealer goes so far, in the Winter, as to attach a special tag on the winding key advising the purchaser to let the machine rest in the warm room for twentyfour hours before winding. This re^t serves to take the chill out of the spring and prevent its sudden snapping. Banks, and not depositors, are responsible for losses sustained by depositors upon checks drawn by depositors' agents in excess of the amount fixed by depositors, as a result of the refusal of thf; United States Supreme Court to review a decision of the Pennsylvania courts to this effect. (a <a © © The Superior Lid Support CA touch of one Finder lifts or closes the Lid, which stops at any point desired Does not ivarp the Lid Sample Prepaid, $0.75 Nickel— $1.25 Gold Quantity Prices on CApplication Superior Specialties for Phonographs BARNHART BROTHERS & SPINDLER Monroe and Throop Streets CHICAGO ©®©®©®@©®®< "BUILT=IN" TALKING MACHINES Latest Idea of Architects Serves to Arouse Considerable Newspaper Comment The recent announcement of a New York architect to the effect that he has made provision in some of his new apartment houses for built-in talking machines has aroused considerable comment in newspapers in various sections of the country. The Toledo Blade, for instance, regards the innovation as a natural development in home designing and construction, and says editorially: "The suggestion made the other day that it would not be long before we should have houses with the talking machine built in can be taken as a prophecy by the thoughtful if they wish. It is not as grotesque as it appears at first glance. Perhaps it will not be the talking machine but something else equally remote as a permanent fixture. The trend of build is that way. "There are many houses still standing in this city which were erected without provision made for furnaces; hundreds that were built without thought of electric lights; and it is a smart architect who includes in his plans conduits for telephone wires. "A bath-tub in a room specially constructed for bathing purposes, with connections to a constant supply of water and means of providing hot water at any time, would have seemed something like a Jules Verne tale not so many generations ago, while the proposition of building ail ice-box into a house would have appeared idiotic in the boyhood days of most men of middle age ar present. "Architecture, taking so many of its ideas from the civilization of the Greeks and Romans, has been slow to join forces with science, but it is doing it now. The theory that the useful cannot be beautiful is vanishing. When we get back the habit of building houses for people to live ill we shall see more strange things in the way of 'built-in' innovations than talking machines." Headquarters for the manufacture of talking machines have been opened at 116 Patton avenue, Asheville, N. C, by William Haverman, who makes both the cabinets and the motors for his machines. PHONOSTOP 5th Successful Year ACCURATE— SIMPLE— DURABLE Reasonable Price Guaranteed Fully Nickel or Gold UNIVERSAL STANDARD NEED-A-CLIP New Fibre Needle Clipper Guaranteed RETAIL AT 75 cents Trade Discount A SUPERIOR TOOL THE PHONOMOTOR CO., 121 West Ave., Rochester, N.Y.