[radiotvnut]

Here's an American Foundation for the Blind "talking book" record player, model U-10, that I believe is the very first model of talking book phonograph from '34-'35. This machine plays 33 1/3 rpm (talking book speed) and 78 rpm (music) records. This model also has a built-in AM radio that uses a TRF circuit. It's interesting to note that this model uses two volume controls. One is for the phonograph and one is for the radio. I think the phono volume control is in the audio circuit and the radio volume control is in the antenna circuit.

This thing uses a heavy tonearm and a horseshoe magnetic cartridge that tracks heavy enough to cut a new groove in a record; so, this will obviously not work with microgroove records. It's my understanding that the first TB records were pressed on some sort of plastic; but, they used they same type of groove as a 78 rpm record. I have some later 33 rpm TB records from the '50's; but, they are microgroove and are designed to be played with a much lighter tonearm. According to the instructions, this machine can also play British 24 rpm TB records by moving the pitch control to it's slowest position. The instructions also caution that the British records are made of shellac and are easily broken.

This should still be an interesting restoration project and it certainly has it's rightful place in history.

Actually, I'm a user of the talking book service and I'm a collector of these vintage TB machines.

The best TB players were the wooden cased tube models from the '60's that played 8, 16, and 33 rpm and used an Astatic powerpoint plug-in cartridge (like what's in the school califone record players).

Here's a video I made of the inside of the machine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5utnGAbCpIA

[Image: http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341...6f11d8.jpg]

[Image: http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341...d90dbb.jpg]