In a message dated 1/12/2008 1:35:14 PM Eastern Standard Time, jon at noring.name writes: > Btw, any more info on the Pathe' weight-driven phonographs? And what > about the early record cutters that were weight-driven? > ======== Thinking about the meaning of "weight-driven" for a moment, there is another possibility. How about a phonograph that operated through the actual _weight_ of the human owner or user? From PHP, see Church's US 529,019 (1892-1894). And if you stretch the meaning of how the "weight" is defined (or by what part is utilized), there was a machine that aurally announced one's own weight (in pounds), but which was obviously operated (the reproducer that is) by the user's weight per se. From PHP (illustrated), see coin-op 702,985 (filed in 1901). There was a (retarding) piston of sorts used by some of Albert Keller's floor machines, but that was more of a regulating action, to prevent too rapid a push (in re-locating the reproducer). Early electrical batteries also stored up energy... and the Keller machines were thoughtfully lined with lead on the bottom shelf (to protect the wood against the sulfuric acid). And magnetic recording was experimented with as early as 1878. Perhaps that was a form of "stored" energy. Allen www.phonobooks.com <BR><BR>**************<BR>Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.<BR> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489</HTML>