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The First New England Loud Speaker?


Guest rlabomb

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I found this at an estate sale. It was with a bunch of other stuff from an electronics collector. It was made by The Bristol Company in Waterbury, CT in the early twenties. The patent for the electrical mechanism dates to 1910. It has a knob on the bottom that moves a worm gear and adjusts the opening of the diaphragm. There are two terminated ends, and a ground wrapped in fabric. Everything that is not metal is solid mahogany, even the horn. Anyone know how I would go about testing something like this? I am a cabinet maker by trade so I am a little slow when it comes to things electrical. I found a few original ads from 1925 for this item on line but not much else. Any one seen one in person? Any help would be appreciated.

--rlabomb

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Nice find!

I suggest you have someone who has some electronic experience test that speaker. Those really old units don't work exactly the same way as more modern speakers.

Instead of a fixed magnet, they used an electromagnetic coil. This coil was energized by current from the amplifier, and actually formed part of the amplifier's power supply!

As such, it is somewhat tricky to make it work with out the original amplifier it went with, but it can be done.

I'm sure there are a lot of audio electronics hobbyists who would love to work on an old "field coil horn." If not here, try www.audiokarma.org.

-k

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Guest rlabomb

K,

Thanks for the info. It probably needs a DC supply from some old car batteries? For now, I can appreciate the Yankee ingenuity and craftsmanship that went into it.

--rlabomb

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