|
Casavant
Frères
|
|
|
|
|
For a time, famed organ
maker Casavant Frères made disc record players (phonographs or
gramophones).
My crude
translaton of the French language
pages
in Casavant Frères, 1879-1979 by Laurent Lapointe:
"[Because]
of their competence "in the questions
of sonority and the laws of acoustics", and experiments in [cabinetry],
[Casavant] undertook the manufacture of phonographs.
To this end, in 1919, they incorporated
another company with limited responsibility [called] La Companie de
Phonographes Casavant Limitee. This
enterprise was really born in the factory since the first machines were
initially
made by some employees eager to get a gramophone [cheaply](!). This practice authorized by the owners was
transformed soon into [a] serious project and, after a few months of
studies
and experiments on various apparatuses, [they began] the manufacture of
an
instrument that gave satisfaction to the Casavant brothers. At the beginning [they] did not seek to
produce [machines] in great quantity, but the reputation of the
Casavant
phonograph was propagated rather quickly from Saint-Hyacinthe and those
which
visited the organ factory did not fail to underline [the] quality of it. These first successes [led] the Casavant
brothers to consider the prospects [for going into this business] and
the
decision was made to [increase] their production and to incorporate the
company
in 1919. A building was bought and
[they] installed the necessary production equipment.
After one year, 20 employees under the
direction of Joseph Touchette, the former harmonist as a chief of the
branch of
South Haven, produced 13 different models for which the demand became
so strong
that it surpassed production capacity (!). Successes
of this company were short and "the acquisition
of [the
remaining] woodworking machines and the motors of La Companie de
Phonographes
Casavant" by the organ enterprise put the end definitively of the
manufacture of phonographs in 1927."
|
Pictures from a
brochure courtesy of Bryan Dewalt at the National Museum of Science and
Technology, Hull, PQ:
|
 
|
 
|
 
|
|
Pictures coutesy
Keith Wright at the Casavant factory, Ste. Hyacinthe, PQ:
|
Machine
in the collection of Keith Wright (crank removed):
Arm can swing for
vertical or lateral cut records:
Compared to a Victor
Victrola VV-IX:
|
"Flea
market" machine about 2003 (photos by KW):
|
Machine
in the collection of the National Museum of Science and Technology
(courtesy their website):
|
Arthur
Zimmerman contributes this ad from the Montreal Daily Star, Thurs. April
1, 1929, p. 26.
|
|
Back
|