CAPS 2003 APN

Phonograph collector Jean-Paul Agnard takes a look at the much-maligned dictating cylinder. Although the cylinders themselves are of no great interest (except for their special grooving: 150/inch compared to the common 100 or 200) through 32 years of collecting he has amassed more than 29 different boxes for his museum, including a rare Canadian Stenophone and a one-foot tall by 5-inch diameter Recordaphone for which no machine has ever been identified.

Ephemera Corner:
Fragmentary Documents of Phonograph History
by Bill Pratt

An invoice dated February 1913 that records a sale from Babson Brothers, Winnipeg, Manitoba, to F.J. Dubee, Photographer-Farmer, Sussex, New Brunswick, of an Edison Standard Phonograph, wax and Blue Amberol cylinders and several accessories including a Tizzit Modifier. What's a Tizzit Modifier? Details in this issue.

Rare Automaton Presentation a Great Success
by Mark Caruana

Those present at the December 1st meeting of the Canadian Antique Phonograph Society were given the opportunity to see some of the rarest treasures from the collections of CAPS members. Past CAPS President Edward Moran brought in many of his own automatons to display at the meeting and gave members a whirlwind tour of the history of these highly collectable devices. Most astonishing were the automaton birds as they joyfully chirped away in their cages, reproducing some of the most intricate songs while tilting their heads from side to side and fluttering their wings.

At The Auction
by Mark Caruana

In the lead up to Christmas, items at auction on Ebay have been generating some spirited bidding and my guess would be that the best month to sell an item is in about October or November. The most wonderful machine listed was a Columbia AS coin-op which failed to reach its reserve as the bidding only reached a mere $5,600 U.S. A very nice Pathé Royal with a slip on mandrel to play the Pathé Salon-sized cylinders, bid to $990, also failed to reach the seller's reserve. Other than machines, there was a very scarce handbill from an early phonograph exhibition which failed to get even a single bid at its starting price of $500. This 9-inch by 6-inch paper item is presumably from about 1878-79 and was in remarkable shape.

New Factory for Berliner Gram-o-Phone Co. Limited
reproduced from the Montreal Standard, December 25, 1920

"During the past summer a notable industrial building has been erected at the corner of St. Antoine and Lacasse Streets, St. Henry, for the Berliner Gramophone Company Limited. It is hoped that this new two million dollar extension to the factory will be large enough to take care of the growth of business until 1940 - so that the musical longing of babies now in their cradles, is being planned for when they set up homes of their own."

Exhibition: 50 Years of Television in Montreal
Musée des ondes Emile Berliner

The Musée des ondes Emile Berliner, Montreal, presents the exhibition 50 Years of Television in Montreal through to September 28, 2003. The official début of television in Canada was September 6, 1952 and the museum is itself situated in the former factory of one of the headliners in television manufacturings - the giant RCA Victor Company. The exhibition presents numerous television sets from the collection of the Musée des ondes Emile Berliner as well as some on loan from private collections.