Thanks BenLurkin. Thoroughly Modern Miscellany.
Posted on 04/07/2022 10:36:44 AM PDT by BenLurkin
These wax cylinders were game-changers in the later nineteenth century. People could slide a blank cylinder onto their Edison phonographs and record themselves and their surroundings. However, because they are incredibly fragile, these cylinder recordings were considered unplayable by those living in the modern age – at least until now.
These recordings will not remain a mystery for much longer. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which has a collection of these wax cylinders, recently acquired an Endpoint Cylinder and Dictabelt Machine. This modern machine, invented by Nicholas Bergh, can digitize wax cylinders thanks to a laser and needle combination. The Endpoint Cylinder and Dictabelt Machine can even digitalize broken cylinders.
It will still be a few years before the entire wax cylinder collection housed at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will be digitized. However, once this process is complete, listeners throughout America who have access to a computer will be able to hear these mysterious tapes. We will get to learn how people sounded over one hundred years ago, from the comfort of our own homes.
(Excerpt) Read more at thevintagenews.com ...
used to by maxell by the case :)
Remember the blank cassette tape wars?
Memorex, Maxell, Fuji etc..
The frigging good old days..
Thanks BenLurkin. Thoroughly Modern Miscellany.
I’ll make sure to listen. But how will we know they didn’t change the content?
‘Face
;o]
There is one guy who in his youth had been known to recite the alphabet with one long loud continuous burp. Mentioning this for a friend.
Hard to forget the wreck of the Ella Fitzgerald. / Seinfeld
“Send more Chuck Berry”
Agreed.
They probably sound a bit like this:
Live recording from 1903
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIB0XXEKYgk
Mapleson Cylinders: Tosca “LIVE”: Eames, de Marchi, Scotti, etc. (1903)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTJv5qC62Bg
There are recordings from circa 1860 that have been processed and played back.
As I recall, the recordings were made by a man speaking/singing into a the wide end of a cone and recorded by some kind of vibrating brush or pen or marker of some sort onto paper or a card or strip. The result was a linear waveform. No means for any kind of playback existed until recently. The man was singing Clair de Lune I think and you can actually hear it. Cool stuff.
LOL!.........................
Here’s a video that plays the original and all the subsequent versions after processing and refinement:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=znKNQXo58pE
I remember my father using a Dictaphone in the early 60s to record dictation on plastic belts. We had an old wax-cylinder machine around the house too, but it didn’t work.
In 100 years time, they will play mysterious recordings of Joe Biden, and language experts will be severely challenged, trying to translate, and attempt to put into perspective, what the hell he was saying.
Looking forward to this! I need to learn much more about it.
I am actually looking for one that was restored using the laser they are talking about in the article.
I remember the good old daze when you used to see balls of tangled tape blowing around by the roadside like little tumbleweeds.
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