had new diaphragm with sapphire
needle, and its promotional material naturally claimed better
reproduction.
The Edison laboratory's first response the challenge
of the Victrola was cylinder machine designed play the
4-minute Amberol cylinder. came enclosed cabinet which bore more
than passing resemblance the Victrola, and the Amberola's
price $200 brought into direct competition with it. The Victor company believed that they held the key
patents the Victrola success and were prepared license
them, but very high price. The Amberola was announced 1908,
and introduced 1909. Unlike
the Edison phonograph, the Victrola could taken for piece
of furniture and many people bought for exactly that reason.
The Amberola was not the only Victrola copy the market, for
the Columbia Company also had luxury machine called the
Grafonola. Edison's lab was given the job
of working around Eldridge Johnson's important patents,
.IX- 4
wooden casing and the horn the machine was enclosed the
body the phonograph, volume control being achieved by
adjusting doors louvres the front the machine.
Priced $200, the Victrola was aimed the luxury market and
quickly became the fashionable machine the middle classes. The
Victor Company claimed (with good reason) that the Amberola was
a copy their machine, even the point similar name. The
enclosed horn gave phonograph design new lease life
because the horn, overbearing, unsightly, and prone collect
dust, completely dominated the line the phonograph
