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.