Marconifone Record Player

"As a child I remember this record player along with a few records of John McCormack, Slim Whitman and Mario Lanza arriving In our house In Coalmarket In Carlow. In those valve radio days and before TV it was a real luxury and as children we were warned to mind it and make sure it’s lovely mahogany cabinet didn’t get scratched. My mother made sure it was covered with a cloth when not in use to keep out the dust. It was very simple to use as it only had 2 knobs on the side, one switched it on and controlled the volume and the other was for tone range (treble to base). Inside the lid the turntable had a central rod with a holding mechanism that allowed you to load up to six records at a time. With the records loaded the knob on the right of the turnable was turned to activate the system. As each one finished playing, the stylus arm swung out, the next record dropped down, the arm swung back in and dropped slowly onto the record to play the next tune. The knob on the left of the turntable had 3 settings, 33 (for the old vinyls), 45 (for singles) and 78 (for LP's). For years it was always set at 33 but as we became teenagers we started to buy singles and LP's and then we had to remember to change the speed knob or else it played a really weird tune indeed. I will always remember how fantastic it was to be able to listen to your favourite tune on those dreary days when Radio Éireann played solemn music all day because some famous person had died. Of course we had to remember to keep the volume low so that the neighbours wouldn’t know we were behaving so badly."