Looking for information about an old (possibly 1920s?) wire recorder

My dad has had an antique wire recorder/telegraphone for many years now. It is in rough shape so I don't think it will be working again without some extensive repairs. Information about it is sparse online and I was wondering if anyone here could help me find any more details about it. The front label says "Record-O-Phone MFD by Record-O-Phone Co. Washington, D.C. U.S.A.". My research has shown that it might be related to a man named H.P. O'Reilly, and possibly manufactured in the mid-to-late-1920s. I would appreciate any more information that you could give me regarding the history, date, or rarity of this device.

I've embedded an image of it. Also, here is a link to a full album with pictures from pretty much every angle: http://imgur.com/a/l3fVC
Be forewarned that there are 38 images and all of them are quite large. Thanks for your time!

 

That does look significantly more archaic than the typical wire machine. I don't really have any info to contribute, but color me intrigued.

 

What a fascinating machine! That is the machine on which the Pierce wire recorder was based, which arrived in 1945. My guess is that it's older than the 1920's, since there appears to be no amplification which was available after 1925 or so. Or perhaps the amplification was in a separate box. The wire looks a little thicker than the .004" used by Webcor. It is unlikely that the wire could be played on another machine, because the mechanics of the reel would be incompatible. However, it might be playable if rewound onto the spool of a different machine.

I'd love to take a couple months and restore that.

 

I don't know anything about the machine, but this eBay listing of a 1924 stock certificate would support the theory that it dates to the 1920s:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USA-THE-RECORD-O-PHONE-COMPANY-stock-certificate-1924-DELAWARE-/330930146623

 

Indeed it was made in the 1920's. But I can't seem to wrap my brain around how it might have worked without a box full of tubes. The ouput of my own wire machine is millivolts, and amplified with a modified phono preamp. I can't imagine that signal directly driving a set of cyrstal phones. The output of very early electric phonograph pickups was magnetic, and required lots of amplification.