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April 22, 2006
Wire Recorder and old radio
I bought a wire recorder on Ebay not too long ago. It is the predecessor to the tape recorder. It records sound on a wire about the diameter of a fishing line. (When I play it for people, they can't believe that the sound is actually recorded on this thin wire. But it is, two feet per second. It is magnetized, just like audio tape.)
I bought it for demonstration purposes—wire recorders were used by the Ghost Army in World War II. This particular machine is a Webster-Chicago post-war model, from about 1952.
It came with about 30 spools of wire that already had recordings on them. I have been making digital copies for preservation purposes. I don't think any of them are one-of-a-kind recordings, but why take a risk? Many of them are high quality recordings of old CBS radio shows, including some I've never heardof, such as "The Paul Masterson Show"
One spool, unlabelled, contains a recording of longtime Santa Anita racetrack announcer Joe Hernandez calling the last race run by the famous racehorse “Seabiscuit.” This was the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.
You can listen by clicking here.
It sounds like it might have come off a record. I found another recording of the end of the race online, and it sounds a bit different in tone than this one. It may have been recorded on a different mic, or the differences may be due to the way each was reproduced, the number of generations they have gone down, etc.
Anyway, it was a fun find. If anyone has more information about an of these recordings, I would be glad to hear it.
Posted by rickbeyer at April 22, 2006 05:25 PM
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