Today I took my son down to Dover, Delaware to visit the Johnson Victrola Museum. I've recently become enamoured and fascinated by old antique gramophones and, upon discovering a nearby museum devoted to them, went to visit.
Now, I'm sure you're wondering "What on earth is a Victrola museum doing in Delaware, of all places??" I know I was wondering that exact same thing. It turns out that there's a fantastic answer!
E.R. Johnson, co-founder of the Victor Talking Machine Company, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and grew up in Dover, Delaware! Who knew? Now I guess we all do.
To say that this building was loaded with Victrola's is an understatement. I was glad I was wearing a mask, because I may have been drooling in jealousy.
This first is one of the early Victrola's. If memory serves it may have been a Victrola VV-I. The early phonographs, and early Victrola's by extension, have the big horn; these horns were replaced by smaller, internal horns on later models, so it's easy to tell an "early" from a "later" gramophone.
Lookit all the records! What a nostalgic thing to look at: a large library full of music. Most of us today have all that music and so much more ready at our fingertips on our phones, but there is certainly something to be said for old physical copies.
This is a Victor VV-IV. This is the Victrola I want next.
Gramophones were, of course, originally manual devices with a spring powered motor. As electricity became more wide spread and reliable it was inevitable that the gramophone also became powered by electricity. The general design stayed the same, but the power source itself changed.
Interestingly, as gramophones became powered by electricity, it became possible to place them in larger halls and buildings. This necessitated a reversion back to using an external horn which could amplify the sound and make it louder. Also interestingly, there are coin operated gramophones. The ones at the museum were all behind glass and I could not get a good picture of them, but they were pretty neat.
So, why did the horns on the early gramophones be come to be replaced by internal ones? Ironically enough, they were deemed unsightly and prevented sales. By redesigning the horn and making the gramophone look more like a household piece of furniture, manufacturers were able to increase sales. This is odd to think of today since, for me at least, the horn is perhaps the most impressive part of the entire contraption.
The Victor Talking Machine company was ultimately bought by RCA and because RCA Victor, which is arguably the most well known gramophone today. There was, however, a great deal of competition in the early 20th century: Edison, Pathe, Columbia, and Berliner are just four competitors, all with varying levels of success.
The level of awe and wonder that these machines must have brought is something difficult to imagine today. I'm glad so many of these machines have survived; they're a great testament to solid engineering done by hand.
How do they sound? Here's mine, playing Mephistopholes Serenade from Faust
(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe
About Me
Amateur photographer. Wannabe author. Game designer. Nerd.
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