Allen,
Thanks, I am very impressed with and greatly appreciate the description you
gave, especially the partner lock and battery replacement.The 1883 liberty
nickel did not have the word cents on it when it was first made, so being the
same size as a $5 gold piece it was gold plated and passed off as $5. I read
that one man who did this was a deaf-mute and purchased exactly five cents
worth of items and at his trial he successfully claimed that he thought the
$4.95 he was given in change was charity due to his condition.Five cents used
to be a lot of money, in the song He's a Devil in his own home town Billy
Murray sings: He spends a five cent piece thinks nothing of it. Coins and
phonographs are both wonderful hobbies and the coin op has elements of both.
Thanks again,
Steve
From [email protected] Fri Nov 10 11:15:51 2006
From: [email protected] (Peter Fraser)
Date: Sun Dec 24 13:12:00 2006
Subject: [Phono-L] School Presentations
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
References: <000701c70489$d9d9d1b0$6500a...@scott>
<[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
I've given a presentation on Edison, as a person and inventor, to the
5th grade classes at my kids' elementary school for the past 8
years. i bring in a Standard and a Gem or a Q, and a Vic R and an
orthophonic portable, and samples of various media and misc other
stuff (including a vinyl LP and a tape cassette, which are becoming
just as alien as a cylinder record to today's 10 year olds). i also
bring a candle and a replica edison bulb, and a recorder and a few
shaved brown wax cylinders, and a string/tin can telephone.
and then i walk them through a comparison of how they entertain
themselves today vs before and after Edison's phonograph, and a
comparison of how we light our rooms. then we go to demos of home
recordings (i have an awful rendition of O\ld Black Joe, plus a
commercial version, which makes for a fun comparison, and no, i don't
hand out the lyrics to that one). i play some late 20s hot jazz and
explain how it was music parents didn't like their kids to listen
to. the 5th grade kids love hearing that they now have more formal
education than Edison had. but their favorite is lining up to record
their names and a brief phrase onto wax, and then hearing it back. i
also usually get one or two of the musically talented ones to record
a musical performance. when i can get it together, i burn them CDs
of their recordings as well, afterwards.
we always talk about who their heros are, and how the heros of
yesterday are different than many of those of today...and how that
contributed to the naming of their school when it was founded in the
early 30s: Edison Elementary. this leads to another sort of
comparison, of what we value in our society now vs what people
admired then, still rather basic but often remarkably insightful for
10 year olds. of course, i live in the sometimes-disdained and
horrid/ugly/crowded/yaddayadda San Francisco area, where we have
those awful San Francisco values ("coming soon to a Congress near
you!"), so your mileage may vary on this particular point.
it's always a gratifying experience, and we have a lot of fun. i'll
probably keep doing it even after my kid is out of there.
-- Peter
[email protected]
