Clarion - Canadian Antique Phonograph Project

Hawthorne & Sheble Manufacturing Co., Philadelphia, PA, introduced their "Star" external horn disc talking machine in 1907. Its distinguishing feature was the "Yielding Pressure Feed", a device installed within the tonearm to facilitate the passage of the soundbox across the record. In fact it was an attempt at a feedscrew-type mechanism to circumvent Victor's needle-in-the-groove patents. The attempt was unsuccessful, Victor took them to court and H&S was out of business by 1910.

R.S. Williams and Sons Company, Limited, Toronto and Winnipeg, "Canada's largest talking machine dealer", exhibited the machine under the name "Clarion" at the Canadian National Exhibition in August 1907. They followed up with ads for the external horn Clarion disc talking machine and Clarion records from 1907 to 1910.

In 1910, E.A. Hawthorne, formerly of Hawthorne & Sheble, organized the Hawthorne Manufacturing Co. A Clarion talking machine in the collection of Domenic DiBernardo bears a Clarion ID plate identifying the manufacturer as Hawthorne Manufacturing Co., Toronto, Canada.

By 1917, there were advertisements in Canadian newspapers for an internal horn Clarion horn machine, both table and upright models, from the Cecilian Company Limited, Toronto, and later R.S. Williams and Sons Company, Limited, Toronto. By 1927 R.S. Williams was advertising an orthophonic-style Clarion phonograph in both upright and console models.

Toronto Daily Star, August 29, 1907, p. 9. R.S. Williams and Sons Co. Ltd. exhibited the Clarion Talking Machine at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.

Brantford Daily Expositor, October 14, 1907, p. 8.

The Province (Vancouver), November 1, 1907, p. 13.

Edmonton Bulletin, November 9, 1907, p. 8.

Edmonton Bulletin, November 29, 1907, p. 9.

Edmonton Bulletin, January 25, 1910, p. 7.

Victoria Daily Times, March 1, 1910, p. 5.

'Clarion Talking Machine' made by Hawthorne Manufacturing Company, Toronto, from the Domenic DiBernardo Collection. Photographed--with permission--by Cheryl Wright (rights reserved):

Likely some patent-dodging device (also note two controls in the pictures above, one is start-stop, the other is what?):

Toronto Daily Star, June 22, 1917, p. 9 and September 1, 1917, p. 7. Two ads by the Cecilian Company Limited, Toronto, including a Clarion table model horn machine for $8.00.