Bell and Tainter Graphophone Electric Motor

Catalogue number #365584143

Bell & Tainter Electric Motor	Bell & Tainter Electric Motor	Bell & Tainter Electric Motor

Description:

Electric motor for a Bell and Tainter Graphophone dating from 1880s. After inventing his tin foil phonograph in 1877 and playing around with it for a couple of years, Edison decided it represented a 'dead end'. The tin foil was so fragile and imperfect that he could see no real use for his invention and turned his attention to the electric light. The challenge to perfect the phonograph was taken up by Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter who invented cardboard cylinders with a wax coating to produce the first truly practical phonograph (they called it the Graphophone), in the late 1880s. The few machines they jointly produced were either hand or treedle cranked or powered by electric motors. (The development of a spring motor powerful enough to run a phonograph was not developed until 1895 or 6). I doubt that more than about half a dozen Bell and Tainter phonographs survive so this motor is the nearest I will probably ever get to having even a part of one pass through my hands! It is a delightful motor in perfect condition and working order. It runs happily on a couple of six volt batteries in series. For all the above reasons this must be one of the rarest Victorian domestic electric motors in existance. Overall length 11" (28 cm) Price includes delivery worldwide.

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