Auxetophone
Illustration — 1908 poster advertising Gaumont's sound films, showing a Chronomégaphone Compressed air gramophones were gramophones which employed compressed air and a pneumatic amplifier to amplify the recorded sound. One of the earliest versions was the Auxetophone, designed by the Anglo-Irish engineer Sir Charles Parsons. It was capable of producing sufficient volume to broadcast public music performances from the top of the Blackpool Tower, and was said to be loud enough to cause people to vacate the front rows of seats in an auditorium.
Auxetophone
- Field
- compressed air gramophone
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — 1908 poster advertising Gaumont's sound films, showing a Chronomégaphone Compressed air gramophones were gramophones which employed compressed air and a pneumatic amplifier to amplify the recorded sound. One of the earliest versions was the Auxetophone, designed by the Anglo-Irish engineer Sir Charles Parsons. It was capable of producing sufficient volume to broadcast public music performances from the top of the Blackpool Tower, and was said to be loud enough to cause people to vacate the front rows of seats in an auditorium.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Auxetophone. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q2873182 · wikipedia · Auxetophone
In this article
Pneumatic amplifier
The Auxetophone was sold in the United States as the Victor Auxetophone.
A pneumatic amplifier was realised by using a sensitive valve, which required little force to operate, to modulate the flow of a stream of compressed air. The basic principle of the valves used in these devices was to pass the stream of compressed air through two partially overlapping combs. The sound vibrations to be amplified were applied to one of the combs, causing it to move laterally in relation to the other comb, varying the degree of overlap and so altering the flow of compressed air in sympathy with the sound vibrations. The Chronomégaphone, designed for large halls, was a compressed air gramophone which employed compressed air to amplify the recorded sound. It was used by Gaumont for the presentation of some of their early sound films. Other compressed-air gramophones included the Elgéphone.
Literature
Literature
The Auxetophone for Reinforcing Gramophone Sounds, Scientific American, 1905
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Collectables
20,755 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- AutoviaOrganisation
- AutozodiacoOrganisation
- Autumn DynastyWork
- AuverlandOrganisation
- Auxiliary Power's Demolition Derby and Figure 8 RaceWork
- AV MotorsOrganisation
- AV-8B Harrier AssaultWork
- AvalancheWork
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Auxetophone?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.