Posted on 05/28/2018 7:58:35 AM PDT by wally_bert
It belonged most likely to my wife’s grandparents.
There were some needle packs from the Columbia Music Company. Those packs had 5 digit phone numbers.
I didn’t know those were a real thing.
The only ones I saw were on episodes of Hogan’s Heroes.
5 digit phone numbers? Wow.
I would like to get an Edison phonograph one of these days. It would be a novelty.
I have a Sony BVW-75 Betacam SP videotape machine and an edit controller sitting around.
A few people get a laugh from it.
I had the player out yesterday and a couple of the down the street neighbors got to hear it play.
No, they're real. I think mine was made by Sears, and I think they only made them for two or three years. Wire recorders were problematic. The wire would break, and there was no easy way to splice them.
Germans invented "tape" recording, and it was so much better than wire recording, everyone went to that.
Mine came with one intact spool of recording wire. I've never tried to load it because I don't want to damage it. The record player and the radio work though, and I assume the wire recorder and playback works, but I haven't tried it.
I also have a "portable" television set from the 1950s sitting in my office, and I would like to get an even older one from the 1940s. Ever so often I cruise Ebay looking at them, but I really don't have time to devote to this sort of novelty stuff right now.
But I just thought I would say I share your interest in old things.
The only ones I saw were on episodes of Hogan’s Heroes.
Must have been American. The Germans were using tape at that time. :)
A few people get a laugh from it.
My sons and I have been watching episodes of "Fringe." We are on the fifth season and the episodes revolve around finding these missing betamax tapes on which Walter recorded his brilliant plan for stopping the "Observers". I get a kick out of it every time they show him loading a tape into his betamax player. I think they thought it was a pretty good joke at the time they made it.
I had the player out yesterday and a couple of the down the street neighbors got to hear it play.
Those old Victrolas have a distinctive sound. Sort of tinny, and easily identifiable. Anyone who has ever heard one can recognize them instantly.
I remember when I was growing up I used to love to watch "Dark Shadows", and I was especially haunted by "Quentin's theme" which they used quite a lot once it debuted.
Believe it or not, the wire recorder was invented in 1898 by Valdemar Poulsen. He called it the “telegraphone”.
Thank you, I bookmarked that for later.
A little while ago, I got a notice from Youtube about a video I shot a long time ago. It was a fair cable car ride that I ran the speed up and used stock music.
It never did much so I deleted it.
That is a good choice, and sort of what I had in mind. It would be cool if I could make it work on a more or less permanent basis, but I suspect I would have to do some serious modifications to it to make that happen like changing out the CRT with a more modern tube of some sort. (possibly an oscilloscope tube.) Unless it uses some pretty common tubes, I would be afraid to operate it very long. I would be especially concerned about the CRT.
Electronics is my thing.
Didn't know that. I wonder how he recorded anything and played it back prior to the invention of tubes?
The original WAS an oscilloscope tube, a 3KP4. They are nearly impossible to find these days, many people use a 3KP1, but that gives a green picture. Even they aren’t easy to find. All the other tubes are very common.
It might be an interesting project to fit a semi-modern solid state portable TV into the old cabinet (and leave the original chassis intact). There are plenty of those TVs (from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc) around and they are cheap.
Another option would be a 7-inch TV using a 7JP4. There were many manufacturers and models of those, probably the best of them would be the Admiral 19A11, which had an actual power transformer (rather than an AC/DC set with series string filaments). Good 7JP4s are much easier to find than 3KP4s.
In the ‘50s, my grandparents’ phone numbers were 927J2 and 903R1. (How do I even remember that?!) You picked up the receiver and told the lady, “927J2 please.” and she’d connect you.
More than you probably ever want to know is here:
https://www.princeton.edu/ssp/joseph-henry-project/wire-recorder/Telegraphone.pdf
I perceive you are familiar with old designs too. :)
Yes, the low end stuff used filaments in a series and the better stuff used actual power transformers.
The original WAS an oscilloscope tube, a 3KP4. They are nearly impossible to find these days, many people use a 3KP1, but that gives a green picture. Even they aren’t easy to find. All the other tubes are very common.
This was the first thing that popped into my mind. The picture would be green unless I could find a white phosphor tube. Most people wouldn't know that isn't correct, so I figured as a working prop, it would still get people's attention.
It might be an interesting project to fit a semi-modern solid state portable TV into the old cabinet (and leave the original chassis intact). There are plenty of those TVs (from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc) around and they are cheap.
I was thinking it might be possible to find something like that with a tube that was close enough.
I've seen people make miniature Video Arcade systems (like Pac Man and such) with repurposed tubes and displays like that.
That is really old school! I've seen it on television, but i've never used an operator to place a call.
The area is very rural western NY state. Until just a few years ago you couldn’t direct dial long distance. You could dial the 10 digits (new-fangled for there), but STILL an operator broke in and asked, “What number are you calling from?” Maybe that happens now; I don’t know.
I showed that video to some of the crowd at the mines.
Everyone liked it. One guy was impressed with the shape it was in considering the tin building it was parked in for decades.
They built stuff tough back in those days. I guess they had to. The only plastic invented in that era I think, was "Bakelite." Brittle stuff that, so they generally made it pretty thick.
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