And, uh, has nothing to do with anything that would ever live in Flameboard land.
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
Note to self- Water cooler chat goes to the Officer's lounge.
THe recording is kind of freaky sounding. Almost like a bad echo. Old recordings like that give me the chills.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
So he made a machine that made squiggles on paper. Big whoop. It's not like he had any hope of playing it again. Edison et al. made replayable recordings (i.e. not requiring exhaustive computer reconstruction).
I mean it's neat and all to hear, but it doesn't shorten Edison's historical swinging pecker a single millimeter.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Pfft. Edison's phonograph was almost the only thing he actually invented. He took the credit for what the people in his lab invented, or else he's credited with something that he didn't invent at all but only improved upon. For example, the light bulb, his most famous 'invention,' was fairly well established by the time he got to it:
quote:In addressing the question "Who invented the incandescent lamp?" historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel [1] list 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Swan and Edison. They conclude that Edison's version was able to outstrip the others because of a combination of factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve and a high resistance lamp that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.
(From wikipedia)
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Yeah, & Henry ford didn't invent mass production or the assembly line, he just organized it all better. But there we are.
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
quote:Originally posted by Guardian 2000: So he made a machine that made squiggles on paper. Big whoop. It's not like he had any hope of playing it again. Edison et al. made replayable recordings (i.e. not requiring exhaustive computer reconstruction).
I mean it's neat and all to hear, but it doesn't shorten Edison's historical swinging pecker a single millimeter.
You're right. I doubt that anyone will ever connect this guy's name with anything significant, everyone will still remember Edison when it comes to recordings, but it is still nice to know that Mary had a little lamb was not the first thing someone thought to record. Actually, the possibility remains that there are more of this guy's paper recordings out there. I doubt anyone would want to find them though.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I would. I too had a problem with a nursery rhyme being the first thing recorded. I was like, why not the President reading a speech or something?? Mary Had a Little Lamb?? Srsly??
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Because it's simple & has harmonics. Best testing element available.
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
Yeah, but Edison said it in probably the most monotonic way possible. WHy not a song? Or a major scale? That has harmonics, and I'm pretty sure Edison could pull it off.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
When you do a baseline testing, you don't go for complex.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I think he was just testing the principle. Not every "historical event" is appreciated for what it is (or will become) in the years to come. Neil Armstrong being the exception of course.
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
I dont think a major scale is that complex. It wouldn't it also show if the machine could detect different tones and pitches? 8 notes up and down isn't that hard-for most people, who knows, maybe edison was tone deaf.
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sean: I dont think a major scale is that complex. It wouldn't it also show if the machine could detect different tones and pitches? 8 notes up and down isn't that hard-for most people, who knows, maybe edison was tone deaf.
Well, yeah. He was almost completely deaf from adolescence. Duh.
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
Oh. i did not know that...
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I didn't either actually.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Oh yeah, I think it had to do with him being dragged by the ear.
This kinda reminds of the debate over who created the first video game, but this debate stems more from the question of what constitutes a video game.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
So don't kids read inspirational comics about 19th century self-made men anymore?
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound condescending. I honestly thought it was common knowledge that Edison was deaf. I guess not so much.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
I don't really care about who invented what, but the fact that this is the voice of someone living 148 years ago feels quite significant.
But my favorite 'oldest media ever' is the 1888 Leeds Bridge scene, because it simply shows a short slice of ordinary life, and there is a lot going on for such a short piece of film. This Leeds Film Festival trailer sums it up quite nicely .
(sorry to off-topic)
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
That's cool.
Posted by Zefram (Member # 1568) on :
quote:Originally posted by Harry: I don't really care about who invented what, but the fact that this is the voice of someone living 148 years ago feels quite significant.
History sometimes seems so sterile that it's fascinating to me to see more personal imprints. The most dramatic example I've personally seen is in Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland. I don't remember a whole lot about the palace since the tour I was on was rather brief. However, I remember the northern turret room pretty well. In that room Mary Queen of Scots' secretary David Rizzio was murdered in 1565. It's believed that the large dark stain in a corner of the room is indeed Rizzio's blood.
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
I remember seeing an original Edison Film a while back. It was shot from one of the gondolas in one of the canals made especially for the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. To see that film, and to see people and what they did in their normal lives here in Buffalo a hundred years ago is amazing. To tour the house that President McKinley died in and to see the gun that he was killed with two or three days after that film was made was simply breath taking. Britain obviously has a much older history tha Buffalo, but it is still cool.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Speaking of McKinley and voice recordings, there's one in his Wikipedia article from 1896. It starts out with some historian giving background information, so you have to skip ahead to around the six-minute mark, I think, to hear McKinley. The way he speaks sounds really weird to modern ears. I don't know if he would have sounded pretty typical at the time, or not.
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
My computer cant play wiki files, so I had to search for it on the net. I found it on youtube . Around the 55 second mark, there is some wierd noise, I guess either a train, or the crowd cheering. I think he sounds like a typical Beacon Hill aristocrat.
And here is his assassin's exicution, although I think this one was an actual movie recreated by Thomas Edison instead of the actuall thing.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I've often wondered about the voices on radio broadcasts from the 20s-40s. Weird accents, and the women always seem to be speaking in a hesitant falsetto.
Posted by Sean (Member # 2010) on :
Well, they were pretty much playing a character, whether a voice play, or just DJing, and the men might have needed to enunciate their words to be heard by the broad cast technology of the time.
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