{"id":8492,"date":"2025-06-15T11:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T09:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/?p=8492"},"modified":"2025-06-15T11:47:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T09:47:19","slug":"excelsior-cylinder-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/2025\/06\/15\/excelsior-cylinder-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Excelsior Cylinder Player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once-upon-a-time, before there was streaming, and SACDs, and CDs, and vinyl records, and 78 RPM shellac disks, there were cylinders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m part-way through a three-part lecture at the local museum on the history of recorded sound. A portion of Part 1 was to talk about cylinders, and I was lucky enough to meet a local collector<\/a> who owned a number of cylinder players, one of which he loaned to me for a demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After some back-and-forth, he agreed to sell me the player to add to my collection. And, after a little (but very little) internal debate, I decided to do a partial restoration as a little weekend project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The player is about 120 years old, so there’s plenty of dirt and oxide on it. My goal was not to make it as-good-as-new, rather to just clean it up a little.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The easiest part was polishing the screw heads. I made a small brass handle to make this easier…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Before and after polishing one of the steel rods that are used to support the sled.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The various parts of the speed governor, dismantled, and ready for polishing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Back together again after polishing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The cast-iron base before stripping the paint.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The end support for the two arms and the threaded rod that moves the sled in sync with the groove on the cylinder, before stripping. Note the professional decorative artwork…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The support arm for the speed governor before stripping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The sled before polishing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Most of the steel and brass bits and pieces after polishing.
The belt on the top left of the photo is made of thin leather.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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The original wooden knob for the brake cracked sometime in the past 120 years. So, I made a new one from Cumberland ebonite. I didn’t feel too bad about using this instead of wood, since ebonite was a common material for such things back in those days. The reason I have it on hand is for making fountain pens and replacement parts in restorations<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The last part of the restoration was to hammer and rub out the dents in the bell, and to spend an hour or two sanding the surface with 800-grit paper, and then polishing on a wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After everything went back together, the only thing left to do was to make a wooden base so that the cast iron won’t scratch anything. Rather than try to re-create the original base and cover, I just made a simple one from teak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The player is NOT sitting on an anti-gravity device. It’s floating above the concrete because it’s sitting on a piece of wood to keep the sand off it before bringing it inside. Note that equally-amateurish decorative paint job on the end piece. I debated making a computer-generated stencil and spray-painting a “perfect” decoration, but I chose to do this instead, in keeping with the original.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“How does it sound?” you ask. I did this recording before the restoration, but you can decide for yourself. Note that, back then, the player still wasn’t mine, and I was hesitant to wind it up enough to play a full two minutes… Hence the rescue mission half-way through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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