On 12 November, I’m delighted to be joining experts on the sasquatch, hermeticism and Gef the Talking Mongoose at the The Fortean Times Unconvention. Jon Ronson will be talking about The Psychopath Test, Jan Bondeson will be discussing some canine intellectuals and Gail-Nina Anderson will be presenting her popular history of the Egyptian mummy.
I’ll explore some of the stranger obsessions of the early adopters of sound recording as I immortalise a voice from the audience by recording it on wax, using an original Edison Standard Phonograph. I’ll also discuss a little-known sound recording method, one which was used to bring popular music into the home, 150 years before the phonograph. And I’ll reveal some outlandish experiments with radio, from the early 1920s, as I play some live aether music on the theremin, accompanied by fellow Spacedog Stephen Hiscock and Hugo, my ventriloquial sidekick.
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Image source: US Dept of the Interior
In December 1877, a journalist writing in Scientific American noted there was a now ‘a startling possibility of recording voices of the dead’. He had just witnessed Edison recording sound on his new invention: the phonograph.
In this live demonstration, I’ll explore some of the stranger obsessions of the early adopters of audio recording, as I immortalise a voice from the audience by recording it on wax, using an original Edison Standard Phonograph.
Delving into the archives, I’ll also examine a little-known curiosity from the eighteenth century, one which may have been used to record short segments of sound 150 years before the phonograph.
This event will include some short, musical interludes incorporating a few of my own inventions. As I use the theremin to conjure up ‘music from the aether’, I’ll reveal how the first ‘electric servants’ were also seen as tools for paranormal investigation.
10 December 2010
The Last Tuesday Society
See event details and map.
Tickets £4-£12
Sarah Angliss
A musician and inventor, Sarah Angliss (Spacedog) is known for her dreamlike performances, incorporating vintage technology, curious stories from the history of science and her own musical machines. She is particularly known for her skills on the theremin and musical saw and the robots which she makes to accompany her on stage.
Sarah takes a keen interest in the history of sound and music and her work has explored musicians’ attitudes to the first music samplers (for the Science Museum, London), Lancashire clog dancing as proto-techno music (with Caroline Radcliffe) and the reputed psychological effects of infrasound (with National Physical Laboratory, Richard Wiseman, Ciaran O’Keefe et al).
A Catalyst Club event at The Last Tuesday Society, London.
Here’s an Edison phonograph recording, freshly made at the London Dorkbot Christmas party, December 2009.
Dorkbot is a meeting for ‘people doing strange things with electricity’ so the phonograph is an odd guest as it records and playback sounds using no electricity at all. As you can see when I lift the lid (see video), this machine is entirely mechanical. You turn up a handle to wind up a spring. This unfurls over several minutes, supplying the Edison with energy. Sound recordings are made using nothing more than a heavy stylus and a horn.
To make this recording, I fitted an Edison record head (which cuts a groove in the cylinder). Assorted volunteers took turns to shout, sing or beat box (!) into the horn of the phonograph so their voices could be immortalised in wax. After dusting away the swarf with a camel hair brush, I replaced the play head and rested its stylus in the groove. Then we listened intently for sounds…
Although it’s very brittle, the cylinder survived the journey from Limehouse to Brighton. Here, you can see me playing it again, back in my office. The cylinder has been played three times before this session -- its sound quality will deteriorate with repeat playing, as the groove gets rubbed away by the playback stylus. On playback, the sound is loud enough to fill a small room.
Thanks to Colin Uttley for the camerawork.
Voices on the Dorkbot Edison recording
You can hear (in order of appearance):
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Beat boxing (Dan Stowell)
Jabberwocky
We Wish you a Merry Christmas
Sign-off and date (Sarah Angliss)
…do let me know if you can fill in any of the blanks.
