The Searchlight horn was a huge hit when it was introduced in June of 1906. Allegedly designed by a master acoustician, the Searchlight horn was heavily promoted as a breakthrough in reproducing sound better than other horns of the time (more than 40% better according to one of their ads, although we have no idea what their measurement criteria were…). Demand for this horn was immense, possibly because of their significant advertising efforts, and by October of 1906 they had enlarged their manufacturing facility in Brooklyn to increase their capacity to 40,000 horns per month. But by 1909, the popularity of the Searchlight horn seems to have faded – in the obituary of Mrs. William H. Locke, Searchlight’s president’s wife, William is referred to as the “manufacturer of the one-time famous Searchlight horn.”

This rare gold Searchlight Phonograph Horn is approximately 30” tall with a 20.75” bell (the whole piece is 33” tall) and is paired with a hard maple base. This type of horn was manufactured to be used with all styles of cylinder phonograph machines and for all Victor machines except the Victor No. 1. The Searchlight horns came in five different colors. The base is made from a large piece of hard maple that was left as a gift on our front porch. The base is finished with Betty’s Board Butter (beeswax & mineral oil). You may wish to re-oil your base occasionally. Each Siren is signed on the bottom of the base with the siren # and name. If your phone has stereo options you may want to play around with mono and stereo settings to see which you prefer.

The Searchlight ads are from The Talking Machine World from 1906.