The 1930s were the dark age of the record changer: The general lack of
money due to the great depression, but also a shift away from records
towards the radio led cost saving and design simplification for record
changers that eventually led to the prevailing drop changer design by the
mid-1930s.
As an illustration on how
bad things were, Victor record sales from a high of 38 Million in 1927 had
dropped to an all-time low of 3.1 million in 1931.
Electromatic of Chicago seems to have
been an independent company or associated with the Majestic Radio Company.
The Swinging Magazine Changer was produced from 1931 to at least 1934. It
was mostly used in Majestic Radio consoles, but also turns up (rarely) in
Scott radios. The example above is a rare portable model of the changer
with the original horseshoe magnetic pick-up.
The Electromatic changer
uses a swinging magazine, whereby the bottom record is pulled out by the
turntable spindle and gently deposited on the turntable. It is much
gentler than contemporary drop changers, as no damaging separator knives
are involved, and the record slides down more than that it drops.
An additional indication of
design simplification is that the Electromatic changer will not stop after
the last record, but just repeat until shut off.
This design is very similar to the 1931 RCA RE-73 (the Victor III
changer), with the difference that the RCA would lift and re-deposit the
record back into the magazine. Both changers could only play 10" records
in automatic mode (below is a picture of an RCA RAE-84 Model.)
While drop changers had been around as early as 1928 (a Sparton
proprietary design with throw-off finger), it took the depression and the
need for cheaper and space saving designs to bring about the drop changer
as the main modus for record changers.
MACHINE INFORMATION
| Maker |
Electromatic - Majestic |
| Model |
unkown |
| Year |
1931 - 1934 |
| Owner |
Gib Epling |
| Repaired/Serviced by |
Gib Epling |
I am always interested to hear about other machines.
You can reach me at:
sgimips1 "at" yahoo.com (replace "at" with @)
Many thanks to Gib Epling for providing photos and the video of his machine, and
Fred Rice for providing detail information.
Please check out Gib's
West-Tech Services
http://www.west-techservices.com.
Gib provides expert repair and rebuilding services for all record players
and changers.
Also many thanks to Robert Baumbach for editing and preparing the video.
Again my great thanks to Chuck
Azzalina for his great help in
creating these pages.
Pleases check out his
other web pages with even more
fascinating early audio and TV tube electronics. One level above this
page, you can find more
fascinating changers with video clips.
MORE VIDEOS and LINKS
Also check out Robert Baumbach's great site of Old Record Changers:
www.oldrecordchangers.com
|
