Re: [ARSCLIST] Sound recordings in 2000 year old pottery...

[Aaron Z Snyder <aaron@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually I've been scratching my head ever since reading the following in a
1930 RCA "Handbook for Projectionists":

CHAPTER VI
 RECORDING

59. Historical.-Just when sound was first recorded is not known, but it
seems that the Chinese, who were first to devise means of printing, making
gun powder and many of the other things which we call modern inventions,
were the first to record sound about 4000 B.C. Practically nothing is known
of the method they used as they did not keep a record of the details of the
device. The story is that a Chinese prince, wishing to communicate with a
friend in some distant province without making the journey himself, would
speak into a teak-wood box while turning a crank in the side of it. A
courier would then carry the box to the prince's friend, who would, upon
turning the crank, hear the reproduced sound message from the prince as it
issued forth from a hole in the box. It is characteristic of that gifted
race that no effort was made to exploit their discoveries, and it was not
until after 6000 years, when Edison rediscovered a method of recording
sound, that it came into general use. Edison discovered that indentations on
a piece of lead foil could be used to actuate a diaphragm and produce sound.
With characteristic resourcefulness, Edison set about developing this
discovery, and in a short time produced a commercial machine which now goes
by the name of "Phonograph." 

****************
This doesn't appear to be an early article by Dr Lirpa. Let's face it: there
is no real reason why *intentional* recordings couldn't have been made
earlier than Edison using the technology of the day, other than a lack of
*great* imagination. It's the accidental ones that seem extremely unlikely,
or at least impossible to yield usable data.

This entry can be seen at

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/rca06-1.htm .

The complete manual can be seen at

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/rca01-cover.htm

Aaron Z