I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles - Test Play of 1910 Edison Model 1A Amberola

Here is Victrolaman test playing an early 1910 Edison Model 1A Amberola. The Amberola 1A was Edison's first internal Horn Cylinder Player designed to compete with Victor's Victrola and Columbia's Grafonola. It had a unique design, as the Cylinder record actually traveled under a stationary reproducer and tone arm, the same as his luxury table model external horn phonograph "The Opera". It played both 2 minute and 4 minute cylinder records, through the use of a Model "M" Reproducer. This particular phonograph has the early cabinet design that featured the Rococo style grille.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Edison
• Amberola
• 1A
• Phonograph
• I'm
• forever
• blowing
• bubbles

[EdisonSquirrel]

Fascinating machine! Bruce, didn't I see you in line at the local Edison phonograph store back in 1910? I'm the guy who tried to sneak to the front of the line to be the first to get a 1-A. Remember? :)

[victrolaman]

@EdisonSquirrel Yes, I remember it well, old timer ! You managed to secure one of those early Mahogany Cabinet 1A's with the Lyre Grille ! What ever happened to that one ?

[pianola6588]

I don't know the chronology of this model. Was it made before the Blue (celluloid) Amberol records were introduced? If so, and it has a sapphire stylus made for the wax Amberols, it will wear out faster (I've heard) when playing the celluloid cylinders, which were intended to be played with a diamond stylus reproducer something like the one made for Edison's Diamond Discs.

[victrolaman]

You are absolutely correct. This Amberola 1 A as I pointed out in the video was produced in early 1910, some 2 years before the introduction of the 4 minute Blue Amberol celluloid Cylinders. They certainly do cause quite a bit more wear on the sapphire stylus then the notoriously fragile and break prone 4 minute wax Amberols they were originally designed to play. Thank you for watching.

Victrolaman

[m134mr]

a beast of a machine - really fantastic!

[kurun1138]

WOW! love it! all of it! My grandpa had something like this, but it wasn't this one. He always sang Forever Blowing Bubbles to me. He had a great voice, and sang often (to me as we roamed the countryside around Pineville and Cumberland Gap). He had performed in vaudeville with black face, earlier in his life! Clarence Benjamin Thompson from Kentucky. Played 78 of Rosemary Clooney, This Ole House often & I still have it. Selling my records to return to being a gypsy - new chapter.

[shortyblackwellll]

Hi Victrolaman! great tunes!!

[AstonishingAce]

It's quite a beautiful machine.

[missabbebuck]

Wonderful!

[sideshowtink]

Gorgeous! I have never seen one in action! Oh how magical! Just takes my breath away!