We live in a highly technological world that is advancing at an unrelenting
pace and where it seems possible that anything is within the reach of
science. However, it has not always been like this. A mere one hundred
years ago, the making of the first sound recording was considered a fantastic
achievement.
These pages were conceived with the aim of preserving some of the knowledge
that the passage of time has tended to erase, but without which the music
industry would not be as we know it today. The main protagonists of this
story are the Phonograph and the Gramophone, also known as Talking Machines.
Unlike other European countries, Spain at the turn of the last century
did not have any firms producing gramophones with their own technology.
This meant that all the motors and a large part of the mechanical components
had to be imported from third countries (mainly Switzerland, England and
France). Nevertheless, the history of the gramophone in Spain is dotted
with small workshops in which craftsmen, using imported motors, were able
to make gramophones of singular beauty. Unfortunately, we have little
information about these small Spanish brands.
The F. B. Collection is the result of a great deal of compilation and documentation
work on our earliest history. Alongside the well-known Edison phonographs
and other exceptional machines that marked the incipient world of the
first sound recordings, the collection contains a large number of gramophones
and radios, among which special mention should be made of the unique collection
of machines manufactured in Spain. Gramophones such as the "Calophono"
made by the Iberia company, of which we know of only one surviving example,
constitute a heritage which must be preserved for the knowledge of future
generations.
- We apologise for not having all the web pages translated into English,
but we hope you will enjoy your visit.
- We would be grateful for any information that you think may enrich this
website, as well as for information on any original phonograph or gramophone
you know of that is for sale
(info@coleccionfb.com)
.
