The Columbia Graphophone Grand

This article is part of the ANTIQUE PHONOGRAPH, GRAMOPHONE AND TALKING MACHINE IDENTIFICATION GUIDES.
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I thought you might enjoy seeing some photographs of the Graphophone Grand. Introduced in 1898, this is possibly the scarcest of the concert phonographs. The purpose of the five inch machines was to yield more sound, always a consideration with the brown wax records. It was well established that greater surface speed produced more volume, and some small companies had experimented with records revolving faster than 120 rpm. Columbia's Grand beat Edison's Concert phonograph to market by a few months, although the first blank five inch records for Columbia were manufactured by Edison, whose wax enjoyed a superior reputation in the trade. In 1900 the Graphophone Grand sold for $150, as opposed to $75 for Columbia's lowest priced five inch machine, the AG. The original heavy eagle reproducer has been replaced with a larger soundbox on this example.