|
  |
|
|
A Wire Recorder and Its Impact on Music
By Grace Donovan
Do you know what a wire recorder is? If you don’t own a pawnshop, chances are low that you have ever handled it, but don’t get upset: after reading this article you will know nearly everything about the first magnetic storage medium. Kids of our kids won’t probably know what CD stands for and will think it is anything – a poorly-engineered wheel, a plastic donut, a hula-hoop forerunner or Frisbee – but a digital medium. Such a turn-up is a small wonder: technology doesn’t stand still; wire recorders fell into disuse only a half-century ago, and nearly nobody knows about these things nowadays. Meet a wire recorder
As I'm the one of the few who "knows so much about these things", I shouldn’t hush up the truth about wire recorders – "so let it be known". If you're observant enough, you might’ve noticed that I quoted songs of the Smiths twice in one sentence. There’s a reason behind it. The thing is, if Oberlin Smith – an engineer and namesake of Morrissey & Co. – hadn't proposed his idea of a new device in 1878, we wouldn't have tapes, gramophone records, and what followed them. Thus, no musician would have tools to carry their art to the masses, and we wouldn't be able to listen to anybody's songs (and quote them in our articles).
Everything started when Oberlin Smith proposed to use a steel wire to record telephone conversations. Choosing of a steel piano wire instead of, say, a nylon string was the right choice and the first prototype of a device – called Telegraphone, – was built by Valdemar Poulsen twenty years later. It was the beginning of magnetic recording. Steel wire was superseded by audio cassettes only in 1964 – the year the mass production of tapes began. Given that wire recorders were around for a while makes us think they are quite a part of the history – and yes, they are. The wire recorder is the first answering machine in the world, and there’s more to come... The most remarkable use of the wire recorder Third Place. A wire recorder served as black box in Presley’s best times. While wire recordings never provided astonishing sound, living as long as giant tortoises do – and that’s about 200 years! – they were certainly built to last. Corrosion is their only enemy, and that’s why they were used to identify the reasons of plane crashes in the 50s. Second Place. Wire recorders were used to record what’s going on inside satellites and spaceships. There’s a considerable amount of irony: human mind stepped as far as sending guinea pigs, parasitoid wasps, and aforementioned yet smaller tortoises in space, but people still used wire for recording. It’s interesting what they use now, in epoch when killifish, squirrel monkeys, Iberian ribbed newts are cosmonauts and spiders are building their webs in-orbit… First Place is occupied by four bands: The Microphones, Golden Boots, Bishop Allen, and Paleo. Their new record is called Collaborate with a 1940’s Wire Recorder, and describes what they did in a best possible way. Apparently sound equipment does matter, even though there’s more behind music than just it. |
Wire Recorder
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
Publish Sheet Music
Publish your music scores for free.
www.musicaneo.com/services/publish_sheet....html
|
|
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
Fascinating, had no idea that sound could be recorded with wires. I mean not the wires attached to the microphone. Am I getting this right? The wire is inside this thingamajiggy and some sort of sorcery makes it record and play back sound. Is that correct? Amazing.
 |  | nick May 25, 2011 16:13 | |
I think "this thingamajiggy" fits quite nicely into your point of "a poorly-engineered wheel, a plastic donut, a hula-hoop forerunner or Frisbee". Very informative Intel.
The copyright for this content entitled "A Wire Recorder and Its Impact on Music" has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Details 
This content may be copied, distributed, or modified as long as the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://sheetmusic.qondio.com/
|
|
|
This intel was contributed by Grace
Grace
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
