Curtiss / Aeronola



Machine photo and information on the machine from Rob Gosselin, Kingston, On.

 

On the motor:
Ser no  301173 
Motor no   226827   # 16  Pat June 18 ' 12    Pat Nov 30 ' 15     MeisselBach Newark N.J. USA.

The Cabinet is also stamped # 673
Made by Curtiss Aeroplanes & motors, Limited, Toronto, Canada.
 
Distributed by Orme Limited 175 Sparks st. Ottawa, Canada.
Pictures and information from Carl Swanston:
Notes received with the above machine pictures:




The Curtiss Aeronola gramophones were manufactured at 163 Dufferin Avenue in Toronto Ontario Canada circa 1919 by the Curtiss Aeroplanes & Motors LTD: less than a kilometer from where I live.  Mine (serial & motor numbers 5M620 & 170523) is one of four [KW, now six] known Aeronola’s still in existence, the others belonging to the Science & Technology Museum in Ottawa (serial number 3M14), to Merlin Wimmer of Toronto (serial & motor numbers 4M773 194452i) and to Rob Gosselin of Kingston (serial & motor numbers 301173 & 226827) [KW additions: and Wayne Cowie of Holland Landing  (Serial number 4M716 (?) Motor # 137612) and Steve McKendry-Smith of Winnipeg (Serial number 4M527, Motor #169937].  The original price tag: $180 – approximately $3600 today.

 

Glenn Curtiss was an aviation pioneer born in upper state New York.  He produced airplanes, motorcycles and engines.  He associated himself with the Wright brothers and formed the Curtiss-Wright Corporation that still exists to this day (NYSE: CW) through no means of his own. 

 

In an effort to expand his production, Curtiss built a plant in Toronto as well as the city’s first airport in Long Branch area.  His facility was purchased shortly thereafter and taken over by the Canadian government in 1916 during the First World War.

 

Curtiss was friends with Alexander Graham Bell who in turn was friends with Emile Berliner.   Berliner helped Bell in developing the telephone and who is also the inventor of the gramophone.  Curtiss had worked with Bell on aviation projects.  Perhaps it’s this indirect relationship that lead Curtiss to develop his own gramophone brand.

 

After the war ended in the spring of 1919, Curtiss retook possession of his plant and dedicated a part of it to become the gramophone factory on Dufferin.  The factory was meant to produce up to 300 units a day.  They were recruiting cabinet makers, rubbers, trimmers and finishers: rate 50 cents per hour up to 6 dollars a day.  At 50 cents an hour it would have taken 2 months of work to enable you to buy my Model number 5.

 

There was a strong ad campaign in the fall of 1919 enticing vendors to pre-order their aeronola’s  for Christmas.  I fear that the orders didn’t come in.   

 

History leads me to believe that Curtiss fell on hard times in 1920 (the company was forced into receivership) and the gramophone production facility became the General (car) Top Company in August of 1920.  The Curtiss Company was then managed by Canadian financier Clement Keys who brought it back to prosperity sans gramophone production.

 

My gramophone was brilliantly refurbished and refinished in the fall of 2006 by Robert Nix “The Gramophone Doctor” of Sarnia, ON.   Mr. Nix is currently the past-president of the Canadian Antique Phonograph Society.

 

 
Scans from 'The Canadian Music Trades Journal' courtesy Carl Swanston:

July 1919:


October 1919 (two pages):
 




I believe this is the museum artefact report for the machine mentioned above from the Science and Technology Museum--also supplied by Carl Swanston:

Machine photos from Wayne Cowie . 
He also sent: "Serial number looks like 4M716 Motor # 137612."

 


Jennifer Mueller contributes the following advertisement published in the Globe and Mail, Saturday November 29, 1919 (page 18):

 Stephen McKendry-Smith sends the following pictures regarding a machine he bought from the Winnipeg Art Gallery in the early to mid '90s.


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