Multi-selection Phonographs
Almost immediately after the invention of the coin operation mechanism, enterprising individuals began to tackle the problem of creating a coin operated device which could play multiple records without manual changing. One of the first devices to accomplish this feat was the Hydraphonograph, introduced by Runge and von Stemann of Berlin in 1900. The Hydraphonograph was able to offer listeners six different records in the same machine. Along with the Multiplex device which was introduced at about the same time, these devices ushered in a new era in public music. Patrons at establishments which possessed a coin operated phonograph could listen to one of a, for the time, enormous number of choices of popular music wherever they were. The first radio station in the United States would not come until twenty years afterwards, making the multi-selection phonographs the first method available to the public for the dissemination of new music.
This is an especially important development in the history of popular music. While the original single record phonographs were an amusing novelty, the listener could only hear one song from the machine until it was changed for a new one by the operators. With multiple selection phonographs, people in rural America, such as the listeners in the Florida Juke joints, could hear all of the latest hits from the big cities. As Mark Katz tells us in Capturing Sound, this, the portability aspect of the phonograph, was of critical importance to the development of new musical styles during the early twentieth century. The rise of the multi-selection machines allowed patrons to hear far more new music than most could have afforded to purchase for their own collections.
One of the most important multi-selection phonographs was The Automatic Entertainer, created by John Gabel in 1905. The Automatic Entertainer featured a staggering 24 selections available for listening and received an award at the Panama Pacific International Exposition
This is an especially important development in the history of popular music. While the original single record phonographs were an amusing novelty, the listener could only hear one song from the machine until it was changed for a new one by the operators. With multiple selection phonographs, people in rural America, such as the listeners in the Florida Juke joints, could hear all of the latest hits from the big cities. As Mark Katz tells us in Capturing Sound, this, the portability aspect of the phonograph, was of critical importance to the development of new musical styles during the early twentieth century. The rise of the multi-selection machines allowed patrons to hear far more new music than most could have afforded to purchase for their own collections.
One of the most important multi-selection phonographs was The Automatic Entertainer, created by John Gabel in 1905. The Automatic Entertainer featured a staggering 24 selections available for listening and received an award at the Panama Pacific International Exposition
The primary issue which still hampered the success of these devices was that of amplification. The traditional method of using mechanical amplification through the use of a horn on top of the device was not powerful enough to be heard by anyone not standing immediately next to the machine in the noisy bars and saloon in which the devices were installed.