Scott News V10N7?

[Joseph W Strickland]

I am interested to see what Scott News had to say about the Autotrope juke-box changer that Scott Radio Laboratories developed. However that issue is missing from our archives. If any of you have a copy of that issue, please scan it and send the copies to Kent King. Also if any of you have one, have documentation on them, or know of one in existence, please let us know.

Joe

[Norman S Braithwaite]

Joe:

The Autotrope changer was a product of the Autotrope Corporation of Great Britain. The Autotrope Corporation sold their changer in the Autotrope console in Great Britain with chassis from Scott and other manufacturers. Going from recollection of a conversation with Johnathan Howes of Great Britain, one Autotrope changer and one empty Autotrope console is known to exist.
Norman

[Joseph W Strickland]

Norman;

That makes the one known one in existence to be a virtual museum piece. Since this came out about the time Britain began to be involved in war with Germany, it could have had an impact on whether very many were ever produced. A similar thing happened here after we became involved in WWII when various metals were in short supply for private consumption. Most items considered essential to war effort became very scarce. Here in the USA the aluminum based recording disks for phonographs disappeared and were replaced with various substitute materials including cardboard and glass.

It would be nice to have the Scott News issue that described it. It is strange that none seem to exist of that issue. Surely there were other products of their line also discussed in the issue?

Joe

[jonathan dollimore]

Hello from the UK. We know of the existence of two of these changers and have been contemplating their restoration. To our knowledge their is no service manual available and it would be a challenge indeed. My specific concern is that we cannot be sure how well they worked from new. I believe one was reviewed in Wireless World at the time. From memory it was a "neutral" review, neither negative or glowing.

[Joseph W Strickland]

Jonathan;

Do you know what issue of Wireless World the article appeared in? I would like to find a copy and see if there are any pictures of the mechanism's working parts. The Radiomuseum site has a picture of the typical cabinet they were provided in, but not much more.

Keep us posted on any restoration work and if possible include photos of the internal parts and assembly.

Thank you for your interest.

Joe

[Kent King]

SN-12-37 is the issue you want...its in the Archive.

[jonathan dollimore]

Wireless World December 4th pp 602-605. It is a review of the Anson Commodre radiogram. It doesn't say specifically that the autochanger is an autotrope, but I think it is. There is a picture of the mechanism on p. 604. The two autotropes known to survive are owned by the same person and I believe they are significantly different to each other, so some development work occurred quite quickly in its production life. The changer is said to be capable of giving five and a half hours of continuous playing, being able to play both sides of each of 33 records.

[jonathan dollimore]

Re SN 12-37. A bit naughty for Scott to call to call it his Autotrope.....

[Joseph W Strickland]

Kent;

Thanks for the clarification on which Scott News the Autotrope is described in. I will download a copy.

Johnathan;

Thanks for the details on the Wireless World specific issue and article. The Autotrope sounds similar to some jukebox products that Capehart produced in the 1930s, except the Autotrope was designed for home use. I will search for a copy of the Wireless World December 1937 issue.

Joe

[jonathan dollimore]

Sorry Joe - I forgot to add the year! It was WW Dec 4th 1936, not 37. Also I've just checked with the owner of the two autotropes known over here, and he is happy to be in touch with you direct if it helps - John Howes [e-mail].

[Joseph W Strickland]

Jonathan;

Thanks for that update and the path to John Howes. I will get in touch with him.

I also discovered that the Scott News 11-37 also had a article about the Autotrope along with a picture of the internal mechanism and a more detailed description of how it works. So both the November and December issues of Scott News for 1937 have information on the Autotrope.

Joe

[Joseph W Strickland]

Jonathan;

I found and downloaded the December 1936 issue of Wireless World. The article on the Anson Commodore is quite interesting. The Commodore was a deluxe chassis with 3 audio output stages, multiple speakers and ability to control bass, mid-range and treble response. It incorporated the Autotrope record changer and has some nice pictures of its chassis.

The Anson company must have had a following among those who really appreciated good radios with excellent audio. The bass amplifier was a push-pull output, the mid-range and treble amplifiers were single ended outputs. The article mentions that these controls allow for tailoring of the audio to most anyone's preferences. It was quite advanced for its time.

Thanks very much for pointing me to this radio article.

Joe

[jonathan dollimore]

Righteo. I went back myself and read it and found it more complementary about the autotrope than I'd remembered. Anson was the guy who marketed the autotrope, tho I don't know who designed it. If you go through the Wireless World for the issues which immediately following the review you will find, I think, some advertising of the set by Anson. I have also seen some of his advertising literature and he certainly got some very positive endorsements from the Good and the Great at the time.