When was the victrola invented

The picture of Nipper staring at the horn of an Edison-Bell phonograph while sitting in a polished surface became a cultural icon that remained popular for many decades. After creating a recording studio in Camden, New Jersey, Johnson began adding several innovative improvements to the Gramophone. Johnson tapered the tonearm, improved the soundbox, and created a quieter spring motor mechanism. Johnson also added a lid which the operator opened in order to reach the turntable to change the record or stylus needle.

Since the large town arm required a lot of vertical space above it, early models required the operator reach down into the machine to change the record. The addition of a domed lid allowed for a shallower box to contain the turntable and tonearm making changing records or needles much easier.

An open door allowed louder sound projection while closed doors muffled the sound and dampened the volume. Pooley Furniture Company of Philadelphia was contracted to make the cabinets for the Victrola phonograph. Later Johnson expanded his cabinet manufacturing operations and Victor began building the Victrola cabinets themselves allow a reduction in manufacturing costs.

With the additional production control, Johnson wisely added cabinet finish choices including oak, walnut, and custom paint. Regardless of the steep price, sales of the Victrola were very strong. Johnson launched a well funded marketing campaign with opera stars and famous musicians endorsing his Victrola product and Victor brand. Soon, the Victor logo was the most recognizable company brand identity in the United States.

By , Johnson had sold 15, Victrolas. He continued innovations while at the same time striving to drive down the price. The Electrola was introduced which used an electric motor instead of a hand crank. In , Johnson finally broke through the prohibitive pricing model. Sales rose from 7, per year in to , per year by By , Victor was making over a half million Victrolas per year with the VV-XI floor model being the most popular and selling over , units from through Competitors entered the market with lower priced models but not as good a quality as the Victrola.

In addition, Radio was introduced which offered more variety, better sound, and did not require the purchase of records. In response, Victor added models with spaces in the cabinet for a radio to be mounted that could utilize the same Victrola horn speaker. Regardless, in the bottom fell out of the phonograph business. Hundreds of thousands of units sat unsold in warehouses and huge half-price sales were held during the summer of The market was now fully saturated with Victrola phonograph products.

So knowledge is key. I want the original shine. I want no damage on the veneer. I want the thing to look good. When they shut it down, they threw all the old archive data in the dumpsters in the back. A few guys who worked there went dumpster diving and pulled it all out and were able to piece a lot together about how many were made and when they were made.

Now you can cross-reference that data with the serial number you find on the machine, which I do on my website. I simplified it on my website so that if you click on a model, you can look at the serial number and go and see what year it was made and what features came with it and so forth.

Edie : No, just some accessories. There were a number of smaller furniture companies that made special custom cabinets the machines could sit on. It was a big operation, and they were the largest single consumer of wood for a long time. I just have them on the phonographs as a means to use the phonograph. Most people with phonographs will just go get a handful of whatever records they can find to play.

Phonograph records were pumping out of the factories like crazy, and of course Victor also made the records. So today you can buy a box of them for a couple of bucks. But people have the perception that because the records are old, they have a ton of value, and the reality is they have very little in most cases. Everybody stuck records in their basement.

Phonograph collectors like the beauty and rarity of the phonograph. The phonograph guys are in it for the wood and the beauty and the rarity of a certain finish. Edi e: The very earliest ones are pretty rough.

The early disc records from around that play on the outside horn machines have a pretty raspy, tin type of sound. They did a lot of development over the years to improve the technology.

In , the electric playback came into popularity, but it was too expensive for a lot of people. But they still made horn-type machines, which had become so advanced that it sounds like an FM radio. People are surprised that most Victrolas sound as good as they do. The records I keep are the ones in really good shape. So the key is to have good records. Edie : I put a number of books on my website that I recommend strongly for the Victor collector. Look for the Dog is the Handbook. He and I have done a ton of research together.

There are also several good books on antique phonographs written by Tim Fabrizio and George Paul. Even though his company was based out of Camden, New Jersey, the family funded the museum and the state got involved. Look for the Dog is easy to read, and gives you the history of the company. Edie : Talk to somebody who knows the hobby. Then go buy an inexpensive common model and have it for a while.

Once you become familiar with how they work and all the little nuances, the hobby can grow into whatever you want it to be. It just is a very close-knit group of people. Kids in kindergarten now hardly know what a CD is because there are MP3 players. So is this going to die out as people just forget about this? Who knows what will happen.

I get a lot of calls from people who want to convert their Victrolas to play their iPod through it, people who have no clue. I patiently go through it, and I console them. Great article, on a wonderful Guy! Paul does all my clean-up preservation work on all my Victrolas and will continue to for years to come. Good job! VTLA Mark. Fantastic article, Thanks.

All Victrola collectors are indebted to him! Regards, Neophone. Excellent article however I agree with Ron Dethlefson and can we interview an Edison collector as well. Model vv The labels include: The Aeolian Co.

Is anyone able to offer a source for buying vintage records? I own a Brunswick electric phonograph. It has never been altered. The five vacuum tubes are missing but the tube numbers are printed on the power amp. Would like to speak to someone about the advisability of restoring the phonograph.

The case is in excellent condition. It is NOT a model. That is simply a fundamental patent under which all Victrolas were manufactured. There are a number of knowledgeable folks there willing to help you. What is the value of a Edison Vitrola model I have a Mastertone, full size upright cabinet, tiger oak player in excellent condition I bought about 15 years ago.

Could you point me somewhere? I have a Also have about 50 or so thick albums. Very old. Has alot of needles that go with the machine to play the records with. Hallo, a great article. I have arond neddles and 30 records. Thanks for your helping. Speaking about Victor without mentioning Emile Berliner is like ordering a hot fudge sundae without ice cream. I have some antique phonographs, mainly victor or victrola that i have bought in fairs,antiquities shops,some of them i repair because they are out of order,besides this i collect early records as victor or columbia.

Carlos Roberto de Castilho Rosa, Brazil. We need to see it. Unless very rare, probably worth less than you think. My father service in the korean war and had a mikky phonograph that he gave and I am wondering if anyone knows anything about it? I was thinking about buying a victorian a guy found in an old house. This option didn't really catch-on until well into the 's, as electrical power was not yet readily available in most parts of the country and the added cost of the electric motor was prohibitive for most buyers.

Due to national defense needs, phonograph production decreased during World War I Victor transitioned their immense production capacity to make biplane wings, rifles, and other war materials. When the war was over, the demand for phonographs remained strong, but Victor found that it suddenly had a lot of new competition from small upstart companies, who often made cheaper and usually inferior phonographs.

Many of Victor's patents which protected their unique and successful designs had expired during the war, leaving the phonograph business "wide-open" to anyone who wished to compete after the hostilities ended. A great many phonograph sales began to be lost to the low-priced competitors. These models sold well for a while, but the wide availability of low-cost phonographs and the increasing popularity of newly-developed home radios began to take a serious toll on Victor's business.

Radio offered endless variety, better sound quality, and best of all, the consumer didn't need to purchase records. While Victrola production continued to run at a fairly steady pace, profits began suffering. Management was not paying attention to the fact that much of their production output was being stacked-up in warehouses all over the country, with dwindling consumer demand being felt in the marketplace. Plus, an endless expansion program, including new manufacturing operations on the West Coast and in South America were draining cash rapidly.

A public stock offering brought-in some much needed capital investment, but this was not enough to keep Victor afloat in the waning marketplace. By , Victor realized that radio was a serious threat and half-heartedly offered a few phonographs with an "S" prefix before the model identification that would allow an aftermarket radio to be installed in the phonograph cabinet alongside the turntable, using the Victrola's horn as a "speaker".

This did little to improve sales; why not just buy a nice radio set? In late , the bottom literally fell out of the phonograph business. By Christmas of that year, many tens of thousands of unsold Victrolas were sitting in warehouses, and retail sales had dwindled to a trickle. Customers passed-over obsolete Victrolas in favor of a modern and impressive radio. The company's operating cash had also evaporated. Panic set-in at Victor's corporate office and production lines were suddenly shut-down, with a huge layoff of workers.

In order to move this massive inventory of warehoused machines, a highly publicized sale was held during the summer of , wherein every unsold Victrola would be offered at half the list price. Both dealers and the company "ate" the financial losses just to get the stale products out of their warehouses. The half-price sale was a success, but the valuation of Victrolas, and the market value of the entire company, took a serious tumble.

To boost radio sales, some dealers would hold "trade-in bonfires". The near-worthless inventory of Victrola trade-ins would be burned on the public square as an advertising campaign. Obviously, this created bad press for the company. Victor stock had become virtually worthless by the spring of And any remaining machines that were not sold at the half-price sale were either destroyed or shipped-off to Central and South America to be dumped in those markets.

In order to survive, Victor started making various furniture and flooring products; any idea that could make some money was considered. In a panic development campaign in conjunction with Western Electric engineers, Victor introduced the "Orthophonic" line of phonographs in the fall of , which utilized the latest sound reproducing technology and offered vastly superior reproduction.

Scientific improvements were made in the design of the horns and the soundboxes, in-part based on signal transmission theory developed during World War I. It was a dramatic improvement. Old-style Victrolas sounded anemic compared to these new machines. This was achieved without the use of electronics, though the application of sophisticated acoustic matched-impedance designs.

The tinny Victrola sound was now replaced with a rich tone that was superior to all but the best radios. In addition, phonograph records were for the first time being recorded electrically, which also improved the sound quality. The " Credenza" was the flagship of this new line, and its audio performance is dramatic, even by today's standards picture at left.

The rapid expansion of the radio market, and the introduction of AC power into most homes caused a massive increase in the production of electronic components such as tubes and transformers, with a corresponding decrease in prices of new power amplifiers and speaker systems. In , electronic audio systems were virtually unaffordable. By the late's, prices of tubes and other components had fallen to the point where many buyers could purchase electronically-amplified phonographs.

New combination radio-phonograph sets were also becoming quite popular. These early 'home entertainment systems' could use the radio's amplifier for reproducing records, and the large acoustic horn was replaced by a small paper-cone speaker. Fidelity was again improved, and the "volume control" used in electronic amplifiers offered precise control of the sound level in any room rather than opening and closing the phonograph doors. Some models even had sophisticated record changers, which would allow a complete symphony to be played without having to stop and manually change records.