Berliner Style No. 2 "Hand Crank" Gramophone. Vintage Replica. Circa 1970-80

Magnificent vintage replica of the historic Berliner Style No. 2 gramophone, also known as the "Hand Crank", probably made between 1970 and 1980. This is a high-quality reproduction, exceptionally faithful to the original late 19th-century model, offering an opportunity to discover and experience how one of the earliest systems for playing music from flat disc records actually worked. Its carefully crafted construction recreates the mechanical and aesthetic characteristics of those pioneering machines, with the added appeal of being fully functional. One of the greatest attractions of this replica is its fully functional mechanism, built according to the operating principles of the original Berliner gramophone. Its most distinctive feature is its hand-cranked drive mechanism, which requires the user to turn the crank continuously to keep the turntable rotating during playback. This characteristic is precisely what gives the model its name, "Hand Crank". Motion is transmitted through an exposed arrangement of pulleys, a belt, and gears, allowing the workings of these early sound reproduction mechanisms to be observed directly. Watching the mechanism in motion while a record plays offers a particularly vivid understanding of how people listened to music during the final years of the 19th century. The gramophone is mounted on a rectangular wooden base. A metal framework supports the mechanism and the green felt-covered turntable. It incorporates the characteristic movable wooden arm, its curved metal support, and an elegant conical metal horn with a black lacquer finish, decorated with two narrow gold-colored bands near its bell. The acoustic connection is made through a stitched leather elbow, while the circular metal reproducer (soundbox), with its diaphragm and needle holder, faithfully recreates the configuration of early Berliner gramophones. The wooden base bears a reproduction of the historic "Berliner Gramophone" decal, including references to the National Gramophone Co. of New York. This marking is part of the replica and faithfully reflects the commercial identification found on early Berliner machines, adding to its historical appeal. The gramophone has an attractive aged appearance, with natural signs of age and use on the wood, horn, leather, and metal components, consistent with a vintage reproduction that is already several decades old. The gramophone is in perfect working order. Its manually operated mechanism plays Berliner records by continuously turning the crank. It incorporates a mechanical speed governor that begins regulating the turntable's rotation once the crank reaches sufficient speed, helping maintain a steady playback speed. The entire system works correctly and offers a particularly special experience: listening to a record while manually operating the mechanism, just as people did with the earliest commercial gramophones of the late 19th century. Its actual operation can be seen in the video accompanying our description. The gramophone comes with an authentic early 20th-century Gramophone disc, which can also be heard in the accompanying video. This historical recording is a particularly appealing addition, allowing the owner to enjoy music from the early days of the recording industry on a machine that faithfully reproduces the operation of the first commercial gramophones. This carefully made vintage reproduction of the Berliner Style No. 2 combines the charm of the earliest gramophones with the opportunity to enjoy their actual operation. Its construction, exposed mechanisms, distinctive hand-cranked operation, and elegant black horn make it a particularly interesting piece for enthusiasts of recorded music history. Particularly appealing as a collector's piece or for demonstrations of early sound reproduction, it offers a direct way to experience a technology that forever changed how people listened to music. Measurements: Wooden base: 26 x 17 cm (10.24 x 6.7 in). Approximate mechanism height: 15 cm (5.91 in). Horn: 40 cm long (15.75 in), with a bell diameter of 14 cm (5.5 in). History of Emile Berliner and the Style No. 2 "Hand Crank" Gramophone: Emile Berliner (1851-1929), a German-born inventor who became a naturalized American citizen, was one of the leading pioneers of sound recording and reproduction. In 1887, he patented his system for recording sound on flat discs, an innovation that would eventually become more widely adopted than the cylinders used by early phonographs. Its main advantage was the ability to produce numerous copies of the same recording, helping establish the commercial recording industry. During the 1890s, Berliner developed several gramophone models, initially very simple machines operated by hand. Among them was the Style No. 2, known as the "Hand Crank", a machine marketed in the late 19th century, with surviving original examples dating from 1898. Its construction, featuring an exposed mechanism, mechanical drive, movable wooden arm, and external horn, belongs to the first generation of gramophones designed to play disc records. Unlike the spring-driven gramophones that would later become popular, these early models required the continuous turning of a crank to keep the turntable moving. More advanced mechanisms incorporated speed-regulating systems intended to stabilize playback speed, an essential feature for listening to recordings correctly. This mechanical arrangement made it possible to maintain a relatively simple construction at a lower cost than models equipped with spring motors. The introduction of more efficient spring-driven motors during the final years of the 19th century, with contributions from manufacturers such as Eldridge R. Johnson, represented an important advance. These mechanisms made it possible to play records without continuously turning a crank and contributed to the rapid commercial spread of the gramophone. The Berliner Style No. 2 therefore represents a particularly early stage in the history of sound reproduction. Its design helps illustrate the transition from the first manually operated machines to the spring-driven gramophones that would become enormously popular during the early decades of the 20th century. The recording featured in our video: "Amour & Printemps" - Garde Républicaine de Paris, circa 1901-1902. Included with the gramophone is the original period Gramophone disc heard in our video, featuring a historic recording of the waltz "Amour & Printemps", composed by Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915) and performed by the renowned band of the Garde Républicaine de Paris. The disc bears catalog number 30086 X and matrix number 410 F, both documented in historical discographies. Its reverse retains the characteristic Gramophone angel trademark and the inscription "REPRODUCED IN HANOVER", identifying the German city where these early records were manufactured. The recording dates from the early years of the 20th century and can probably be placed around 1901-1902, although an exact date has not been confirmed. Its matrix number is close to the matrix numbers of other Garde Républicaine recordings documented from those years. This is a small-format, single-sided disc made using the acoustic recording methods that preceded electrical recording. Its sound retains the characteristic limitations of that early technology, which captured sound vibrations directly through a mechanical system, without microphones or electrical amplification. Émile Waldteufel was one of the most popular French composers of dance music during the second half of the 19th century, especially renowned for his waltzes, including "Les Patineurs" and "España". The Garde Républicaine de Paris, meanwhile, was one of France's most prestigious musical ensembles and took an active part in the earliest commercial recordings of instrumental music. Hearing this century-old performance on an original Gramophone disc, played using the hand-operated mechanism of a Berliner Style No. 2, offers a direct impression of how the earliest musical recordings made for the public actually sounded.