You've probably seen them at flea markets and antique malls--   Hand-cranked phonographs.   They are often called Victrolas or Grammaphones, both of with are trade names of phonographs that have become an almost generic description of hand-cranked phonographs.

These machines were manufactured starting in the late 1800's and some portable models were still being made as late as the 1950's.   They come in every size, shape, material and color that you can imagine.   Some originally cost as much as a house (honest) and some were made as children's toys.    There are portables, table-top, tall floor cabinets, wide and low credenza cabinets, and some even look like lamps or pianos.   Collecting hand-cranked phonographs is a great hobby and unlike some collectibles, phonographs give the added fun of playing records on them!!  What a great hobby.

There are two basic sub-species of hand-cranked phonographs, the cylinder phonograph and the disc phonograph.   Both originated in the late 1800's, with the cylinder phonograph coming mainly with Thomas Edison, and some of the earliest disc phonographs were made by the Berliner Company.   With no radio, TV, movies or other modern media for entertainment, your great grandparent's had books and stereoptican pictures, what they and their friends could play on their own musical instruments, and in some cases, home photography.   That was about it.  No wonder music and voice recordings that could be played in the home were such a big hit!! 

Cylinder phonographs use a cylinder a little bigger than a toilet paper core to store music.    Earlier cylinders are made of many different wax formulations, and these can be quite delicate and are often found with mold on the surface.     Later cylinders were made from celluose, most often on a plaster core.   The cylinders slip onto a mandrel, or metal form, that the player spins at the correct speed (you hope) and a "reproducer" connected to some form of listening apparatus (usually an acoustical horn) produces sound waves you can hear.   This was not hi-fi recording by a long shot, but playing cylinders is like riding a time machine 100 years back into the past, and it's a lot of fun to hear what your great or great-great grandparents were listening (and dancing) to in their youth.    Cylinders and players generally come in 2 mintue and 4 minute versions, and some players can play both.    Be careful, though, because many of the earlier recordings can actually be ruined by playing on the wrong equipment, and some of these cylinders can be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars.     Disc players caught the public's fancy and cylinder players and cylinder sales were basically over in the 1920's.    In general, though, a wide variety of cylinders is available at good prices and whole collections numbering dozens or even hundreds are not hard to find at estate sales and auctions.   

Disc phonographs use the familiar flat disc record.   Even modern CD's and DVD's are based on the idea of a spinning disk.    There's a definite evolution in disc players that is easy to see.   The earliest phonographs all have horns outside the cabinet are called "front mount" because the horn mounts to a bracket on the front of the cabinet.    Most have a support structure or arm like the tone arm on a modern phonograph that supports both the horn and the reproducer.     Front mount phonographs are the earliest models, tend to be more delicate than later models, and are sought after by collectors, so expect to pay fairly high prices.     Some of the very earliest models, like the Berliner phonograph depicted in the famous "His Master's Voice" Victor trademark painting, are in very high demand by collectors and can reach four or five figure prices.      

The next evolutionary step still has the horn outside the cabinet, but now the horn bracket is on the back of the machine and the support arm is gone, replaced by an integral tone arm tha supports the reproducer and conducts the sound to the horn.    These phonographs are also very popular with collectors, and prices are very high, especially for ornate models with fancy cabinets and wood horns.    Don't be discouraged, though, I bought a nice rear-mount phonograph in original condition at a flea market for only $120, and it sat there all day before I arrived to take it home.   You never know what you're going to find at flea markets, garage and estate sales.    Patience is the key to building your collection at a reasonable price.  On the other hand, if you have the money but don't have the time and patience, there are plenty of sellers with excellent (but overpriced) machines that will be happy to take your money.

Back to the evolution story.     When manufacturers came up with the bright idea of putting the horn inside the cabinet, the public really responded.     Outside horn phonograph sales collapsed quickly because people thought they were old-fashioned looking, and wanted phonographs that looked more like quality furniture than a machine to set on a tabletop.     Inside horn crank phonographs were the popularity champs  and there are literally thousands of models, hundreds of manufacturers (really) and they come in every shape and size you can imagine, including wicker cases, arts and crafts, hand-painted Louis XVI, Aztec, lamps, pianos, tables, desks and probably a few I haven't seen yet.     The big players were Victor, Columbia and Edison, with many small companies buying mechanisms from manufacturers like Columbia and packaging them in their own cases.     You can buy perfectly good working phonographs that play well and sound great for under $100.   Ebay can be a great source because many of the phonographs are quite large expensive to ship, and sellers want the item to be picked up locally.    This greatly restricts the number of bidders and local pickup phonographs often sell for hundreds below the going market value.

The inside horn phonographs mark the end of the hand-cranked era and although a few portable models were made into the 1950's, most of the machines you see for sale were made before World War II.     When looking at inside horn models, especially cabinet models, bigger is almost always better, oak is preferred by modern consumers over the dark mahogany models, gold plated metal parts are a sign of a higher quality machine, and fancy cabinets and carvings are preferred.      Oddly, even though oak is preferred by many collectors, some makers produced their machines mainly in oak (Edison cylinder players for example) and other materials like mahogany are rarer and desirable to collectors.    Exotic woods like Circassian walnut are prized above all others, and usually mark a machine made before WW I.    

There are two basic types of disc records, and the difference is the way the sound is recorded.    Edison and Pathe' discs record the music in grooves that go up and down.   (Ditto for cylinders.)   Everybody else records the sound in the grooves from side to side.   The two disc types are NOT compatible.   Edison discs are easy to identify because they are 1/4" thick.    You can't play an Edison (or the thinner Pathe' vertical disc) in a regular phonograph and it's easy to damage these discs if you try.     There are reproducers for regular phonographs that can play back the vertical recordings.     Some of the best phonographs for enjoying music are the Edison models, which sported a removable reproducer with a diamond stylus.    Often these phonographs come with additional heads that can play back the horizontal-style records as well.    Late in it's history, Edison did produce horizontal cut records (called needle-cut) and these are the regular thickness.

A note about needles.   Steel needles in hand-cranked phonographs are only designed to be used once or twice and then changed!    There are plenty of ebay sellers with good deals on needles, so make sure you keep a supply and change them often.   Medium and soft tone needles are the preferred models and are easier on your records (and sound better) than loud-tone needles.    Remember, these phonographs don't have electronic amplifiers, so users wanting louder playback for a large room or dancing could only select phonographs with large horns and use loud tone needles to get higher volume levels.   Most of us don't need very loud ouput and will prefer the sound of soft tone needles.

A last word--  Beware of so-called 'crapophones' or 'frankenphones.'   Look up 'crapophone' on google to see some excellent spotting signs for these junky fake phonographs.   There are plenty of these listed on ebay, and many sellers know they are fake but insist on advertising them as authentic antiques.    Most if not all of these machines have counterfeit trademark decals or badges, and should not be allowed on ebay at all.     A recent and disturbing development is production of these phonographs moving to China.    These machines usually have an authentic-looking etched Victor nameplate, and are outright trademark theft.   The Chinese sellers also like to sell the machines cheap but charge exorbitant shipping fees--  often as much as $500 or more.    That's against ebay rules too, and you often see the same auction on two or even three different seller names.  Apparently China has become the world center for fraud, trademark and copyright infringement and until ebay cuts off these Chinese sellers, the best way to protect yourself is not to buy from them in the first place.  

That's your quick guide to hand-cranked phonographs, and I hope there is some useful information for you.