Video Tools
Email Email Comments Comments (12)
RSS RSS

Playing the Unplayable Records

Researchers and scientists work together together to find a way to play recordings made by the studio of inventor Alexander Graham Bell (3:39)

Produced by: Ryan R. Reed


 

Add New Comment


Name: (required)

Email: (required)

Comment:

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until Smithsonian.com has approved them. Smithsonian reserves the right not to post any comments that are unlawful, threatening, offensive, defamatory, invasive of a person's privacy, inappropriate, confidential or proprietary, political messages, product endorsements, or other content that might otherwise violate any laws or policies.

Comments (12)

I'm disappointed; we only got 10 seconds worth of sound, recorded acoustically by the camera, which makes it very difficult to hear clearly. I was hoping for links to the actual audio recordings themselves.

Hi. You can clean 78 RPM records in the sink with just a couple drops of dishwashing liquid in cool water. First, flush the record's grooves with a stream of tap water (not HOT). Then use a lint-free cloth (I like a "micro-fiber" cloth) wash the record with the soapy solution, gently rubbing in a circular motion. DON'T wet the paper label or you will damage it. After washing, rinse the record in a stream of water and dry with another micro-fiber cloth. That's it.. wait until the record dries before you play it.

What an amazing updated adaptation of the cold war spy technology...I saw a documentary of how the Americans learned with a laser to transfer vibration waves from the windows of the Russian embassy into audible sounds. I used to work on an MRI study, and I wish our government would stop wasting money on wars, and get back to funding historical research, and science based projects like this. I've been collecting records for almost 40 years now, and Smithsonian made my day!

It is very interesting. I have about 1000 78th jazz records. Some of them need cleening. How can You help me with this? You cut Your information after couple of minuts.My records are very unknown(Edison about 200 pcs.) Please answer me. Best Regards Dymitr Markiewicz

I could spend countless hours working with that kind of thing....restoration of sound, silent films, etc.

I hate video only presentations. I can't watch them on my work computer because the Flash Player is out of date and will never be updated. What happened to reading?

Wow, this is amazing. I'd like to see a 60 minute documentary on this. Please let us see more! I am in the process of archiving recordings made by my family on records in the 1940s, they used a record cutting machine to send audio postcards, and I can hear the voice of my great grandparents, who had passed away 25 years before I was born.

Closed captions of what they said on the recording would make this video more enriching.

Interesting. Close captioning would help one understand what they were saying.

Would the 3-D copy machine catch the sound?

Excellent, keep up the wonderful work. I have a lot of old 78's and still delight in finding new descoveries.

This is fascinating. I wish I could have heard all of it, but my sound system suddenly stopped working right.



Advertisement


  • Newest
  • Most Viewed