Edison stuck around a good long time, too, by pretty much the same method -- make a better product. If the old man wasn't already deaf and hadn't abandoned records by the time the Depression hit... well, I guess there's a lot of 'what-if' over which one might speculate.Robert, I read your post and your analogy is excellent, as is Edison's quality. My 1917 C-250 still has spring washers that still are like new, some of the new spring washers I have used were useless after one use. It would be interesting to see this hobby 500 years from now. If you read the book Out of the Shadow by Charles Edison it gives you a much better idea about Edison and the years after the depression. When Charles was running the company during the recession Charles wanted to not downsize, Edison overruled him and as a result the company did not go bankrupt. This book gave me a better idea of why Edison was so stubborn and I learned about the life of his son Charles. Normally the book is available at amazon.com. I agree with your statement, all the what ifs and I wish Edison would have let go of the record part around 1920, but at least now I understand more. Charles said Edison was such a great man that he cast an enormous shadow, and Charles hoped to get out of Edison's shadow enough to cast a small shadow of his own. What makes Edison phonographs so interesting is all the varieties, he was constantly changing and improving things. The books that have made the largest impact on my collecting, The Victor Data Book, Frow DD book, Frow Edison Cylinder book, and Out of the Shadow because it covers a little know area. Ron Dethlefson recommended it and it served to fill a void in my area of Edison knowledge.Best wishes to all, Steve From [email protected] Thu Nov 23 09:01:34 2006 From: [email protected] (Robert Wright) Date: Sun Dec 24 13:12:03 2006 Subject: [Phono-L] Edison company post 1929 References: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <001d01c70f21$0a56da30$95ecb...@dhzn6321>
Thanks Steve (and Ron) for the book suggestions! I've come close to buying a couple of those and have a couple of them as well. Time to fill some more void! I would love to see the state of the artifacts of this hobby in 500 years as well. I have a feeling Victor-style machines will continue to slowly dwindle while Edison machines'll just keep on running. You mention all the Edison varieties, and how he was constantly improving his products. Indeed, he was wildly inventive (heh) in his innovations. A PC is a PC is a PC, just faster this year than last (and with a bigger drive and monitor), but no real innovations. Meanwhile, go into any Apple store in your local mall and look at all the radical new designs of every kind in which Mac's are now available. There's that little 9x9x4" box without keyboard, mouse, or monitor, for the utilitarians; there's the supercool models where everything normally in a separate tower is now inside the plasma monitor's case for the chic and space-conscious; and for a thousand reasons, the iPod keeps getting awards as the coolest invention of the last 100 years, with all of which I heartily agree. Similarly, Edison did indeed continue shaking things up -- what was better was better, period. I even know people who collect and proudly display their old Apple IIe and IIc computers (and older models as well). You could even liken Apple's change in OS design between 9.2 and X to Edison's eventual disc changeover -- OSX runs in cells, like Windows, so that a problem with one program won't shutdown all the others running -- but the similarities between OS's stop there. And then look at how much more software is available for PC than Mac, Berliner than Edison. So many parallels! But if I ever get my hands on an all-original Orthophonic, ya better believe it's gonna get a lot more play time than my Edisons. sidenote: Loran, that last post from you was one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Bravo! I am Thankful (aren't we supposed to make a list of what we're thankful for today?) to be a part of Phono-L! Best to all, Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steven Medved" <[email protected]> To: "Antique Phonograph List" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 10:20 AM Subject: RE: [Phono-L] Edison company post 1929 Edison stuck around a good long time, too, by pretty much the same method -- make a better product. If the old man wasn't already deaf and hadn't abandoned records by the time the Depression hit... well, I guess there's a lot of 'what-if' over which one might speculate.Robert, I read your post and your analogy is excellent, as is Edison's quality. My 1917 C-250 still has spring washers that still are like new, some of the new spring washers I have used were useless after one use. It would be interesting to see this hobby 500 years from now. If you read the book Out of the Shadow by Charles Edison it gives you a much better idea about Edison and the years after the depression. When Charles was running the company during the recession Charles wanted to not downsize, Edison overruled him and as a result the company did not go bankrupt. This book gave me a better idea of why Edison was so stubborn and I learned about the life of his son Charles. Normally the book is available at amazon.com. I agree with your statement, all the what ifs and I wish Edison would have let go of the record part around 1920, but at least now I understand more. Charles said Edison was such a great man that he cast an enormous shadow, and Charles hoped to get out of Edison's shadow enough to cast a small shadow of his own. What makes Edison phonographs so interesting is all the varieties, he was constantly changing and improving things. The books that have made the largest impact on my collecting, The Victor Data Book, Frow DD book, Frow Edison Cylinder book, and Out of the Shadow because it covers a little know area. Ron Dethlefson recommended it and it served to fill a void in my area of Edison knowledge.Best wishes to all, Steve _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list [email protected] Phono-L Archive http://phono-l.oldcrank.org/archive/ Support Phono-L http://www.cafepress.com/oldcrank
