Victrola

My Grama Kelly had a Victrola in her basement in the triple decker where she lived in Worcester. The basement flooded at some point while I was in high school and my dad rescued it. He brought it home fixed it up and it sat in our basement till he moved to Paxton with my sister. When he moved it went into my storage unit. 

Decades later it is in my house and I decided to fire it up and see if it worked. I found some records for it and was excited to test it out.

I had to do some research first on how to even use it learned that one play equaled one needle or one side of the record. Fortunately there was a few small envelopes with steel needles in them. They were labeled soft and hard. So I had to look up what that meant and learned it referred to volume as there is no knob to control the volume. I did not know if the one in the sound box was old so I replaced it. Simply loosen the needle screw remove the old and place a new one in and then tighten it. 

The records are made of shellac a brittle resin that comes from a female lac bug.

I also learned that you open and close the cabinet doors to adjust the sound.

You have use the winding key that is on the right side to wind up the motor, maybe 10 times. 

Load the record, pull the brake lever towards the front of the cabinet. 

The turntable should revolve at 78 RPM. Let it revolve a few times then lower and place the sound box gently on the outside edge where the beginning of the song would be. 

When the song is done lift the sound box, stop the brake, replace the needle and play another one.

Sit back and enjoy listening to Beatrice Kay in 1940 singing Strike Up The Band (Here Comes A Sailor) words by Andrew B. Sterling and music by Charles B. Ward written in 1900.