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Old tech - 1947 wire recorder

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
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I've been resurrecting a 1947 Sears Silvertone 7085 radio/phonograph/wire recorder. Several old wire spools were included, but I wasn't able to play them until recently.

Now that the machine is cranking ok, here's a sample, recorded a zillion years ago (late 1940s?). Tommy Dorsey's orchestra "Midnight on the Trail".

Wow.


The wire spool starts with a conversation (microphone) around a family dinner table, about the "new machine", the volume indicator light, "can't think of anything to say", etc. Then a man recounts a minute in a dive bomber, yelling "pull out! pull out!". Then more clatter at the table. Then the recording goes into the Dorsey, probably off a 78rpm record. More conversation, more Dorsey. One other is "Blue Skies", with Dorsey orchestra and Frank Sinatra.

Wire runs about an hour - haven't listened to the whole thing yet. Another wire starts with the Chesterfield Supper Club, hosted by Perry Como, on NBC radio in the late 1940s. Vocal group is Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers. (Chesterfield was knows as the cigarette that "satisfies".)

Very cool bit of ancient history - probably not listened to in many many years.
 
Great stuff!
 
Now we know what is meant by *Singing Wires*! :jester:
 
Very, very cool Tom!
 
My dad had one.
 
Having heard of, but not being familiar with the technology I always wonder when I would see a reference what it looked like and how it recorded on the wire.
 
Seen the machines from time to time but not the pre-recorded wires! That's pretty neat.
 
Wow. My father had a Wollensak reel-to-reel, but this clearly predates that.
 
Never heard of this technology......cool!
 
That is VERY VERY cool! Thanks for sharing.
 
The Ol' Fella switched from wire to tape when I was two or three years old. I have vague recollections of wire recording but grew up on tape recorders. 12" reel-to-reel Wolly, a couple Roberts units, a "portable" Norelco... learned a lot of now-useless stuff like splicing techniques, sound editing and four-track overdubbing. It was good fun, though.
 
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