Arms that came without pick-ups.

Edison Bell add-on arm. Introduced 1927, the price was only 3/- (15p). It is seen here with the first type of Edison Bell electric pickup. For convenience, we have called that Type 1. (There followed three others – see nearby page.)

R.I.-Varley (Radio Instruments). Advertised in the Gramophone Magazine in August 1930. This stubby arm is quite clever, because it will track radially. When records are cut, the head is transported in a straight line across the master disc. Yet when we play them back, the usual pick-up arm describes an arc across the disc, causing ‘tracking error’. The head in this unit stays radial. Besides this, it has a buiilt-in automatic stop brake for the turntable, and even an isolating switch to disconnect the pickup – the two terminals, bottom left. Nevertheless, overall, it is not an attractive piece of equipment, resembling more like a mediaeval instrument of torture… 🤔) 

Pantophone. Made in Germany, but advertised here in the Gramophone Magazine in January 1931. At first glance it looks like the tone arm of a mechanical gramophone – but there is no path for the sound to pass through the black bearing boss. 1931 seems rather late for something of this sort, but it could easily have originated several years before. Interestingly, the socket at the front of the arm was angled upwards by several degrees. The corresponding Pantophone pick-up may have had a similar angle, downwards; if so, the intent was to discourage the use of other makes of pickup. (I have jiggered it so that it will take most tangential types of head. 😊)

No information, as yet.

No information, as yet.