In the 1890s, Emile Berliner dominated the market for disc gramophones and records as his formidable patents kept most competitors at bay. The U.S. Talking Machine was one early (1897) infringer, but its crude design wasn't seen as much of a threat. The first spring-driven disc machine to compete with Berliner was the Conn Double-Bell Wonder of early 1898.

Joseph Jones, a former employee of Berliner (and who apparently stole some trade secrets) filed for a patent on a mechanical-feed gramophone and a new method of recording disc masters in wax rather than zinc. He formed a partnership with financial backer Albert T. Armstrong, who organized the Standard Talking Machine Co. with two more partners, C.G. Conn and Emory Foster. Charles Gerard Conn was the most important manufacturer of brass band instruments in the U.S., with a large factory in Elkhart, Indiana. He designed a unique two-horn assembly to fit motors and cabinets made by Jones. Although Conn was not the leading partner of the company, his name was chosen to market the machines -- most likely because the widespread fame and high quality of his musical instruments made the Conn name a powerful advertising tool. The "Wonder" name was also Conn's, used on a variety of his finest instruments from the 1870s to about 1920.

Unlike the Polyphone attachment, designed later in 1898 for cylinder phonographs, the Double-Bell Wonder did not use two reproducers. The sound came from both sides of the diaphragm in a single reproducer and consequently did not have the echo or reverberation effect of the Polyphone. Still, with two separate horns the machine gives a very pleasing and very unusual tone compared to ordinary gramophones of the era, offering a vague illusion of stereo.

Two versions of the Double-Bell Wonder were produced during the machine's very short lifespan. The first cabinet, as seen here, was made of fine oak with rounded corners. The earliest horns were nickelled brass. The production cost must have been excessive as the fine brass horns were soon replaced with black-painted tin, and the elegant small cabinet was replaced by a much simpler style with dovetailed square corners and a cast bedplate. The machine quickly declined from elegant to prosaic, aside from its characteristic and unique double horns -- which would not reappear on a disc machine until the Kalamazoo Duplex of 1906.

Although Jones had received a patent for a mechanical feed it was not incorporated into the Wonder. The machine was clearly infringing on Berliner's patents and it didn't take long for Berliner to file suit. By June 1898 the Standard Talking Machine Co. shut down. According to later testimony by Armstrong, less than 50 Double-Bell Wonders of both types were completed during the four or five months the company was in operation. Only seven survive today.

While the double horns of the Wonder were an innovation the rest of the machine was clearly derivative of the Berliner 'Trademark' Gramophone, leading to its very rapid demise. It would not be long, however, before the juggernauts of Columbia and Victor would overpower Berliner and change the landscape of the phonograph market forever.