Patent-Pending Thayer Valve?

[RossM]

Hey all!

Does anybody have any info on how old the Thayer on my Edwards might be? Could this be used to roughly date the horn? This is a used horn I bought a few years ago and the shop had no info about it, just getting curious about it again!

Cheers!

[Burgerbob]

TVI valve, used before made their axials in-house. From the '90s, perhaps early '00s

[RossM]

TVI valve, used before made their axials in-house. From the '90s, perhaps early '00s

Awesome, thanks Aidan!

[hornbuilder]

That is an Edwards (Getzen) made axial valve. Ed Thayer was one of the "partners" that started Edwards, along with Ed Getzen. Thayer had the valve design, and Getzen had the manufacturing facility. Getzen have always used their own version of axial valves, with the first ones being stamped with this stylized TV logo (that looks kind of like an axial valve) later they changed to say "Edwards" o "Getzen" depending on what the valve casing would be used on.

My first Edwards purchased in the the very early 90's had valves exactly like yours.

Thayer Valve International, Ed Thayer's own company, after the split from O.E.Thayer, were engraved with Ed's signature, "Orla Ed Thayer", originally on the back plate, but later on the outside of the conical casing. The entire casing was brass. Where-as the Getzen back plates are brass which is nickel plated on their outer face, thus the silver color.

[elmsandr]

Look at the serial number, the first two digits will tell you the year of manufacture.

Should be on the handslide receiver. If that lever is original… it’s old, even for a TVI stamped valve plate. Those were long gone by ‘99.

Cheers,
Andy

[RossM]

Oh very cool! While it's still around 30 years newer than my 88h, it is from 1995.