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Architecture Art Deco Cape Town Photography Victorian Western Cape

Cape Town Architecture

I went for a walk this morning and found pictures of some really interesting architecture.
There a more pictures here.

Art Deco really moves me. I love it.

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But Cape Town is not limited to just Art Deco. What would you call this? Faux Victorian?
Dunno but it is fun

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Victorian

Edison Coffin Lid Cylindrical Record Player

My grandfather bought and used extensively an Edison Coffin Lid Cylindrical Record player. My father inherited it, and I in turn inherited it from him. It looks like this:

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As evidence of his usage, there are 180 cylinders. The cylinders look like this

IMG_0954The name of the artist and the “cut” is embossed on the end of the cylinder.

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The cylinders were packed in cardboard tubes. This is a tube and a cylinder.

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The player was spring driven, here is a picture of the handle and, in the framed photograph above it the original owner of the player. The little baby is me. I haven’t changed much.  The spring drove a threaded bar ensured that the needle moved across the cylinders length.

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The sound was produced by a needle causing a diaphragm to vibrate at the apex of a curved pyramid. It was, if you like a mechanically driven horn.

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Volume control? You stuffed a piece of cloth into the narrow part of the horn. The cloth you can see in the next picture is one of my fathers old vests. Just maintaining familial contact I guess.

You can see the instrument in action here: