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How to Identify an Antique Edison Amberola Record Player

Thomas Alva Edison is credited with inventing the phonograph, using wax cylinders with engraved audio recordings that could be played back on a mechanical phonograph. Edison made his first phonograph in 1877 and stubbornly clung to his patented cylinders long after the flat records had usurped them in commercial popularity. In 1911, the Edison phonograph celebrated its last hurrah with a final line of phonographs, the Amberola, that like its arch rival the Victrola had an internal horn. They were made until 1929.

Things You'll Need

Magnifying glass

Instructions

- 1
  Open the lid and look on the inside for a metal plate. Some models have metal plates on the base.
- 2
  If the metal plate has a Roman numeral after the "Amberola" designation, it is one of the earlier models, made between 1910 and 1914. The Amberola 1A is the first machine and comes in an ornate wooden cabinet with an internal horn made of woodgrained papiermache. The Amberola 1B was made in 1911 and appears very similar. The Amberola III (1912) has an open shelf base; the Amberola IV (1913), a Mission Oak cabinet. Later Amberola models with Roman numerals V, VI, VIII and X were all made in 1913 and are table tops.
- 3
  If the metal plate has an Arabic number after it, it was produced after a great factory fire in 1914 and has a direct drive rather than a belt drive. The most common models, the Amberola 30, 50 and 75 (referring to the original retail price, in dollars), all were introduced in 1915. The 30 is an oak tabletop; the 50, a larger tabletop available in oak and mahogany; and the 75, an upright in oak and mahogany.
- 4
  Two other Amberola phonographs are known to exist, the 60 and 80. Both models were made for the United Kingdom and were not sold in the United States.

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