If anyone is interested in obtaining an excellent reproduction of a Tewksbury Repeater for completing a coin-operated Edison Phonograph, the opportunity is here.
The Tewksbury (or "Kansas") repeater was found in coin-operated phonographs using an Edison upper works (primarily the Class M mechanism) for over a decade (ca. 1894 - ca. 1905). See page 38 of "Discovering Antique Phonographs" for an early example of an Edison coin-op using this repeater from approx. 1894/95. On page 52 of the same book is an 1896/97 example from the Empire State Phonograph Company. Finally, on page 81 of "A World of Antique Phonographs" you can see a 1905 example of this repeater being used in a British coin-op. When the cabinets of these rare coin-operated phonographs turn up, they are almost invariably missing the Tewksbury Repeater. You might think that the chances of finding part of one of these machines is virtually nil, so why get a repeater? That's what I thought too...until one of these incomplete machines popped up less than an hour from my home! Luckily for me, a kind collector (and friend) offered to lend out his rare original Tewksbury Repeater for the purposes of having a few exact duplicates crafted from it. The original is now in the hands of one of the most talented machinists/craftsmen in our hobby and he is preparing to begin work on them. The estimate per unit right now is between $1500 - 2000, but the more we have fabricated, the price will go down. If you have any interest in having one of these repeaters on hand, either for your own use or for future speculation, the time is now. For photos of an original Tewksbury Repeater, see this thread on the Talking Machine Forum: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14080 By the way, I'm not looking to make any profit on this project beyond economies of scale. We will all be paying the same price for these, and as of today only two collectors have committed to purchasing a copy, so the production will be small. After this group is built, the chances of obtaining one will be virtually impossible. I know - - I tried for over a year to get a copy made. Please let me know if you're interested, and the sooner the better! Thanks and best wishes to all, George Paul _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.org
