Some of the French Lioret cylinder machines used a falling weight to power the works. Yes, some of the early recording lathes also used falling weights for this purpose also. I presume the reason that this was done was to further ensure a uniform speed of operation of the mandrel or turntable. A falling weight produces uniform force (hence, uniform torque) during its entire travel which reduces the reliance on the accuracy of whatever speed governor system may be in use. This is why weight-driven clocks and chiming mechanisms are more uniformly constant speed over the entire duration of their "wind" than spring-wound mechanisms. Another mechanically-driven phonograph mechanism was the water-powered turbine works developed by Edison for some of his very early cylinder machines. Also, the treadle-powered mechanisms used by Edison and Columbia on very early cylinder machines. And, yes, it is possible to regulate the speed of a hand-cranked works with the same flyball governor system that is commonly used for spring-wound works. I have a little Australian-made portable disc player that enploys this type of mechanism. There is no spring in it, rather it uses a mechanical governor to brake the speed of a hand crank. A very simple works. Greg Bogantz ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Noring" <jon at noring.name> To: "'Antique Phonograph List'" <phono-l at oldcrank.org> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 11:56 PM Subject: [Phono-L] Weight-driven phonographs and other non-spring mechanicalsystems > Out of pure curiosity, I'm wondering if there were any mechanically- > driven phonographs that utilized a falling weight rather than a spring > to drive the turntable? > > I recall hearing somewhere that certain record master cutters used a > falling weight to drive the turntable (is this true?), so that made me > ponder weight-driven phonographs. > > And are there any other ways to mechanically-drive a turntable besides > springs and falling weights (and of course hand cranking)? I can't > think of any at the moment. > > Oh, and one more question. Is it possible to auto-regulate the speed > of a hand-cranked phonograph? (That is, turning at different rates > still resulted in a fairly constant turntable speed.) If so, was this > ever employed in mechanical phonographs? > > Thanks! > > Jon Noring > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org