Yes I was a bit surprised that the playback wasn't steady Barretter. I suppose it was a win for the family to have it working at all, plus it probably lived up to what they and most people would expect the quality to be, so it would be acceptable perhaps
The the deceased owner may well have taken a different view though. In the same way, it's not generally understood that good condition 78's can actually produce very superior results.
I recall a picture of a cylinder machine [newly built in brass] some years ago, for the Smithsonian I think
It was custom built to extract the audio from some very rare cylinders and cost a fortune.
All I have is one [wax] cylinder [not celluloid, as per the Opera unit].
Dave