88-year-old phonograph gets uncreated

"I suspected it wouldn't play," he said. "This phonograph and I are the same age."

The sound system is a circa-1917 Edison diamond disc phonograph that had never been taken out of its crate.

After 88 years, the vintage record player, a predecessor of the sound systems kids listen to now, was removed from its crate in the museum building at Midwest Old Threshers while upwards to 60 family, friends and Old Threshers volunteers looked on.

Using the instruction booklet that accompanied the phonograph, John and wife Vera, who live southeast of Sperry, Iowa, assembled the turntable to the cabinet, found the crank, wound it up and?nothing happened.

"The grease is too dry. It sat too long," Weyer announced. "There's a whole lot of gears inside there."

Undaunted, Vera said she was certain it would be working by morning or a day or so later. "If I know John, he'll get it working."

If it sounds as good as it looks, the music will be a delight.

Among the 50 witnesses who applauded despite the fact the phonograph would not work at its unveiling, were volunteers at Old Threshers who come to the campgrounds several days in advance to help set up for the upcoming five-day affair.

John Watkins of Dayton, Ohio, said he thought the phonograph "is kind of neat. I'm surprised it looks so good sitting so long in that box."

Mike "Blue Hawk" Adams of New Albany, Kansas, called the phonograph a treasure.

"Watching them open the crate was like taking a step back in history," Adams said.

A living history educator, Adams is seen usually helping out around the craft show.

"Watching this,' he said, "is like finding the "Arabia." The Arabia was a riverboat sunk in the mid-1850s in the Missouri River near Kansas City, Mo.

Adams assisted John Weyer in locating the serial number and found additional information such as "Model 2430" and "cabinet factory #17."

Weyer said the Edison diamond disc has a unique feature that other phonographs at the time lacked. "The needle," he explained, "moves across the record by a worm gear. So if the disc is cracked, it just moves right over the crack because the worm gear is moving it."

"The discs lasted longer," he added, "because in other phonographs, the disc pulls the needle along.

"But don't make a big deal out of me," he told a reporter writing down his narrative. "I'm not a phonograph expert. I read all the publications."

Vera Weyer said her cousin Delbert Pilling bought the Edison phonograph in 1960 from a Burlington jeweler. "He (Delbert) never unpacked it," Vera recalled. "He just left it on his porch."

The phonograph, crate and all, was placed on auction last June.

"I just sat by the whole time," John said. "And I got it."

The crate is just as unique. An upper panel identifies the contents as an "Edison Diamond Disc Phonograph." On a lower panel it reads: "No needles to change." On another side a panel adds, "A musical masterpiece."

Vera said the crate had only been opened a few times when the top was removed to look at the top of the phonograph.