Bill Shirley here again, with the continuing saga of modern sound
reproduction of Edison vertical-cut disks.  I've appreciated all the
input about this.

Paul Allen informed me:

> There used to be a company in London that could supply the styli for
> use in a Shure cartridge to play hill and dale records.  To reproduce
> hill-and-dale recordings you need to connect the pickup to the play-
> back amplifier as follows: connect both channel negatives of the
> cartridge together and take the output to the amplifier from the
> two positive terminals.

Surfing the Internet I found a domestic source of a Shure M78S
Wide Groove / 78 RPM cartridge at

    http://www.shure/catphono.html

Upon contacting  <sales@shure.com>  I was e-mailed this info below.

Regards,

Bill Shirley
bshirley@ardmore.com

 - - - -

The M78S Cartridge can be wired to play old Edison disks.  You need
to reverse the parallel connections to obtain a single vertical output:
connect the right hot lead to the left ground and the left hot lead to
the right ground.

The recommended resale price of the M78S is $90.00.  As the newest
member of our hi-fi line, it should be available through a local
dealer.  If not, you can contact one of the following mail-order
sources:

  Needle in a Haystack           Audio Supply
  Rockville, MD                  Wheeling, IL
  1 (800) 358-2030               1 (800) 541-2478

  Pfansteihl                     The Needle Doctor
  Waukegan, IL 60085             Minneapolis, MN
  1 (800) 323-9446               1 (612) 378-0543

If you prefer, you can order it directly from Shure at :

  Shure Brothers Inc.
  Attn: Customer Service
  222 Hartrey Avenue
  Evanston, IL 60202-3696
  (847) 866-2553