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Where it all began...


Hugh Holesome

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Near Detroit is a museum that contains much from Thomas Edison, including his actual Menlo Park Laboratory that was shipped here by Henry Ford (along with New Jersey soil for it to sit on, at Edison's request)

On a recent shoot there I took my Sound Devices kit to meet it's Great Great Great Grandfather!post-730-0-16950800-1369700694_thumb.jpg

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The first voice ever recorded on a phonautograph in 1860. Must've been played back optically, because it was etched onto blackened paper and there was no reproduction method.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Au_Clair_de_la_Lune_(1860).ogg

 

And Bell's voice recorded onto phonograph in 1885, eight years after its invention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Graham_Bell%27s_Voice.ogg

 

I wonder what people would say if you turned up on set and unpacked one of these bad boys:

 

WaxCylinder3.jpg

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@ChrisNewton

This machine still records and plays back.

In the photo above they were placing aluminum foil over the cylinder which the demonstrator will use to record her shouting (these units are not very sensitive so yelling would help move the element better).

This would then be played back through the same horn.

Very similar to the photo Gandy Moon provided but a lot shorter horn.

I suppose it's pretty difficult to "wow" a crowd holding smartphones anymore but as a soundie I had to appreciate where sound and picture both came from.

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