In the 1990s I had an ESS AudioDrive sound card that came with software that allowed more record time for recording than Win 3.11 did "natively", and I "burnt" all of my (1960s-'80s) family reel to reel tapes and cassettes to (THEN EXPENSIVE) external HDDs. Now multiple (Dozens!) of copies exist on peoples phones, SD cards, CDs etc... It's SO easy now to digitize, save and distribute audio, PLEASE, Everyone: If you have old media AND a way to play it...Digitize and copy the heck out of it!
The song that starts at 3:04 is an old standard called "Peg O'My Heart." I like the way the reading head moves up and down as the wire plays. And I love the pronunciation of "Caroleen."
The head does that to properly "spool" the wire. It's CRITICAL that the wire is spooled properly of course, But it is a mesmerizing part of wire recording!
It's amazing to me that wire recordings sound as good as they do. They're so thin that until I first heard one I assumed they'd be a lot more distorted. Thanks for sharing!
@@xargos they say because the wire moves so fast it actually records the sound at a fairly high fidelity than compared to magnetic tape of the time simply because each second occupied a more physical length. Idk if any of that is true though lol
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 It is PART of the reason, Naturally, the magnetic media "going like hell" past the record/play head WILL be better than moving slower! BUT Also wire recorders almost universally were expensive well made machines. When tape became a "thing", cheaper tape formulations and really cheap machines quite quickly appeared on the market. So tape could have REALLY GOOD sound in the 1950's OR really BAD sound in the 1950's. Wire recording was a more consistent quality.
Wire recording is NOT convenient, BUT it was always good quality as to audio. (It's main limit, sonically, is being MONO only) Most wire recording I've heard from the 1950's are superior to tapes of the same vintage.
We lost my Dad in 1967, but in 1966, his office had a huge party for him and recorded it on magnetic tape. With a friend's help, I was able to transfer it to cassette about 10 years later. When I played it for my Mom, she didn't find it comforting at all. The first small offhand remark he made on the tape made her gasp loudly. I mean she was almost literally hearing a ghost and it freaked her out. She did manage to sit through the tape, but she was so upset, I never played it for her again. I went looking for it some years ago and it "disappeared" from my old room. I suspect she threw it out because it was too much for her. I was not quite 6 when Dad passed, and AFAIK, this was the only recording of his voice that we had.
What a strange, unsettling story, but understandable from your Mom’s point of view. Audio tapes exist of me pontificating on life during the summer after high school and I don’t think I want to ever listen to them.
@@ProfessorEchoMediathe day after my father died I found a recording of his instructions to do after he died. Using IEMs in stereo. “Please Reach behind the radio, you’ll find a black notebook. It has my passwords. Then …”
Wonderful video - Thanks for making this! Many of BBC Radio's recordings were made on a wire recorder called the Blattnerphone during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. All the best from the UK.
Thanks so much for doing this! What a gorgeous experience. I found myself mesmerized by listening and just watching the recorder do it's job. My brain filled in the images of the family!
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 I wish you luck, but as you say, it's so difficult to pin people in history down, without a location. I have done similar things in the past with my hobby, but with hand written diaries and documents.
Thanks for sharing. I remember when I was just a few years old and here was an old one of these at our home. Don’t even know if it worked but I used to take the bullet mic and play like I was calling Sky King from my improvised tower. In more current times, I remember hearing the late and great Mr Rupert Neve talk about his first audio job recording for Winston Churchill, his speeches on a portable wire recorder, pre WWll.
I like how the playback/record head unit goes up and down. A friend of mine whose dad, a doctor, had a wire recorder from the Korean War. It was used in a MASH unit for dictation. We, my friend and I, used to play with the recorder in the early 1970s, maybe '70-'71, if I can recall correctly. There was a fresh, unused wire reel that we recorded on, Tom on guitar, me on piano, and "Ringo" Jim on drums. Just jammin' but the fidelity wasn't all that great, but we could hear that we were using one microphone in a concrete basement of a house. Thanks for sharing this old wire recorder with us, it did really bring up an old memory of mine, that happened over 50 years ago.
I have audio recordings of my famil that go back to 1942. Prescrious memories. The one recording of 1942 was on a record recorder that was a cardboardrecord whith some kind of coating like plastic that the groove was cut into it. The only recording of my grandmother we have. Then, moy brother made disc recording in the early 1950s amd moved on to tapes in 1955. I continued with reel to reel recording from 1958 until 1960 when my recorder deied. But, i kept the tapes and have transfered some to CD for the family to have. They aren't interested as i was to hear people that are no longer with us.
around 1967? i found a working one in a war surplus shop in Los Angeles. I think it cost around $5. There was nothing recorded on the spool that was already mounted, but it did record and play back. Splicing must've been a pain.
I know what you mean about the frustration of the wire getting tangled. I have a wire recorder and dozens of recordings that I have transferred, and some of those recordings, because they were not stored with a proper leader on them, were hopelessly tangled. The wire is a special type of magnetic stainless steel, 0.004 inches thick, and it's VERY springy. I like to replace those plastic leaders with multifilament fishing line. It is strong, you can find it in fluorescent colors that make it easy to see, and simply adding about two feet of it to the end of the wire gives you an easy-to-handle leader that when wrapped around the spool and secured with a bit of tape will keep the spools from getting tangled. Good luck with those wires!
I still have my dad’s reel to reel tape recorder from the early sixties and my voice was so high in 1961 that it could shatter glass and summon hounds from blocks around.
Amazing! I knew about wax cylinder recordings, even paper recordings, but this is the first I've heard about wire recordings! I'm surprised at how clear the sound is. Yes, the audio is a bit primitive but has none of the background noise, pops, clicks and other artifacts that other early recording methods often do. Very interesting.
@@laureenmanera3232 it was far superior to the magnetic tape of the time, I was surprised the wire sound didn't degrade nearly as much as a cassette half it's age.
wire recorders were common use into the 1970s in Flight Data Recorders /Cockpit Voice Recorders.. 1960s and 1970s used either wire or metal foil... mag tape would have melted so metal was used...it was in the 1990s they finally used solid state memory...
I'm amazed that it all still works, at least as good as a reasonable domestic tape recorder from the 1950s or 1960s. The record/play amplifier has tubes, and that is all fine too.
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 IF you can take the output from the head into a modern solid state amp and put a switch to take the heaters etc out of power for the tubes that can be done, or sometime you just need more airflow, alternatively my old valve TVs and amps kept the bedroom warm in cold winters
I don’t have any wire recordings, but I have old cassettes that my dad, who is a musician, recorded in the 90s and early 2000s. I have digitized them between 2020 and 2022 😊 14 songs that add up to a total of 48 minutes. Also, in 2002 he also used a Roland VS-880 I think it was (a digital multitrack recorder), and I “digitized” 4 recordings from that as well (those are part of the 14), one of which was a song that we also had on cassette, but the cassette seems to be lost forever.
Those always amazed me, the head must be made of a very hard steel so the wire wouldn't cut into it, I've seen wire recorders in museums, but never got to mess with one in person, i restore old radios and audio equipment. Thanks for sharing.
@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 no i haven't, it would be an interesting experience, most of what I do is old 78 turntables out of Philco radios and Rca consoles
"Silvertone" was a Sears brand for radios, TVs, and..Well wire (and tape) recorders. Source: My mother worked for Sears her whole career, So I grew up with LOTS of Sears brands!
I think the cleaned version of the family tape might be broken on the internet archive - or it might be something on my end. Thank you for doing this! It has Guy Lombardo's 'Enjoy Yourself, it's later than you think' which is one of my favorite early 50s tunes.
Recording fascinated me from an early age when I was given a wind-up Victrola and some 1920s-30s records by my parents. Then I discovered that our across-the-street neighbors had a wire recorder in their living room (part of an entertainment console). I pestered them to show me how it worked. The answer: not well. Surely not as well as this Air-O-King machine does. In 1957, Sears Roebuck in our town started carrying tape recorders and I was hooked for life. I still own one and it works. Congratulations on this machine. It works quite well in spire of the jerk who decided to erase part of the family recording with his less than interesting comments.
There are Cayuga Streets in Western NY such as Ithica, Oswego and Ithaca. However, I best remember 3rd and Cayuga in (North) Philadelphia, PA back home. The excellent reception of WIBG (pre rock and roll and Joe Niagara in this case) hints they are referring to Philadelphia. Just a theory. I made it a point to preserve media of my parents some of which is posted on my channel. Your presentation is excellent and we watched with great interest.
There is a Cayuga St is in Ithaca, NY; one of the main roads. Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't another, but picking up a station from Philadphia over the AM radio waves up there, especially at night, and in those days, would not have been out of the question.
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 A quick search shows there is a 3rd and Cayuga in Philadelphia. Coupled with the radio station, I think Philly itself is a good bet. (West Cayuga and North 3rd)
i collect and restore recording gear and have many wire recorders. RCA ,Webster,Air King, Pentron,Wire way and Lear are but a few. I have a working Pierce that I repaired and helped the owner transfer some recordings from 1950. The machine is actually the precursor of the Pierce but was sold in 1943 under a different name. A reporter from the Dayton Daily news drove to Alaska and recorded many historical figures which I believe were aired on WHIO in Dayton. They are on the Alsaka historical website . .
The Cayuga tribe was one of the Five Nations of the League of Iroquois who lived mainly in New York State. As such, there is, in NY, a Village of Cayuga, a Cayuga County, and a Cayuga Lake, which is one of the Finger Lakes. So, as others have offered here, there are quite a few Cayuga Streets throughout this region. One interesting tidbit is that during the 30's and 40's law enforcement would often tap into telephone lines and use wire recorders to secretly record people, and the term "wiretap" was born.
Thank you for sharing this recording. Thank you for saving it. This was a wonderful window into the past.. Getting to hear the voices from the greatest generation was terrific. This was something almost lost to time. I'm only 50 however I always felt a strong connection to the 1920s to 50s. I don't know maybe this is something to reincarnation ? I don't know But thanks
@@JamesGillert-x6o I scrubbed the noise for this short vid, the original is at the link the description. It had a constant tone though the output, I should have just mic'd the speaker it sounded warm and still pretty clean
If the Internet Archive survives, THAT would be a good place to upload these recordings!!! BTW, Happy Birthday Caroline! (there IS a non zero chance that she is still out here, since she is described as "little".)
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 YES! Sorry I missed the Archive link! Lots of times I miss reading the description. (My bad!) The Internet Archive is a NATIONAL TREASURE, Up there with the actual Library of Congress...Maybe MORE SO! This is SO COOL!
@@teacfan1080 on my mine the sound coming out of the speakers actually sounds better than through the audio plug, but then if I recorded the speaker audio I would get the clickty clack of the machine, I used audacity to edit out a constant drone from the audio output through the cable
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 can you tap into the wires to the speaker -though its probably mis matched impedence off the "line out" check . work out if you need 4,8 or 16 ohms and a small resistor might help
I used to see these wire recorders at the swap meets in the late 60s. I have collected many different recording formats over the years, I might have picked up one of these, but they were generally accompanied by a Griswold-esque mass of tangled wire, and looked very discouraging.
New sub. Very informative.My father was a recording engineer and told me about the wire recorders.I never saw one.He told me the Germans had them before the war.Would like to hear what a broadcast microphone sounds like on that thin wire.My father was one of the pioneers in LP, and Stereophonic tape recordings in the 50's at Columbia Records.He did the Battle Hymn of the Republic w/ Mormon Tabernacle Choirr and Ormandy and Philadelphia Orch.1959. Album The Lod's Prayer was first classical record to go gold.
It sounds like you went a little heavy on the noise reduction. It muffled the audio and there were a lot of digital artifacts going on. I always transfer off stuff dry with no processing or NR. Then, if I use any of it in post, I don't just apply a filter. I capture a baseline of the noise from a silent or quiet passage in the recording and remove just that noise from the entire recording. Either processed with software like Adobe Audition or inversely by polarity. Anyway, that's a pretty cool find. Old "found audio" is always a fun score.
Dad said he used to have a wire recorder and that, if the wire broke, you just tied the two ends together in a knot and continue from there. I have a number of "field recordings" from Woodstock, not the concert itself but, the goings on in the crowds and one that I think was recorded in the hospital tent. It's really cool to hear that knowing that you're listening to a piece of history actually taking place, although, it's not much more than a handful of people chattering away, one guy complaining that he just wants to go HOME! and a dog, Lucy, I think, barking a lot inside the tent. (Not so cool is some guy threatening several times to kick the dog in the throat!!) It makes you feel like you're actually right there. Similar to if you had an audio recording of what actually went down at the last supper. Unlike someone playing music, it'll never ever happen again! It was caught on tape in JUST that ONE moment in time!!
The thin tape from the late 70s and early 80s, they had different types of machines. 4 track and 2 track and 1 track and I would bet they had a 8 track I bought studio recordings from the early 80s and I had a 2 track machine and the tapes were 4 tracks I tried to find a 4 track machine but they were used in studios. My dad worked at GE Schenectady too, in the mailroom 12345 They would get all the Santa Claus letters from the Northeast They would ask for guys to take a letter and write back to the kids And some of the letters were really sad and guys would buy gifts for the kids that were poor 3rd and Cayuga, Lewiston NY, or Oswego NY or possibly Philadelphia, Fulton NY and Ithaca NY also had these streets
One of our new BMP Archives family films... The 1958 film is in Honor & Memory of my 1st cousin Nancy Ann Bresky Ransegnola. Great preservation. Thank you "The Other." ua-cam.com/video/ixBMrpCEjx8/v-deo.html
Some real history on these machines! I have a 1952 recording from a wire recorder discussing 'Should America go to war with Korea.' ua-cam.com/video/Bbh5T7FQesY/v-deo.htmlsi=ULDhrlEzk1hpYSDz
hi this why you got to record analog and not on to a silly phone i am in the recording trans game the safe way is to record on to betacam or a new fox reel to reel tape or new cassette tape
@@monkeytennis7477 omg you're right, I thought It sounded an octave lower, and then the player must be pre Scruggs, my bluegrass rep is now under review.
@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 Well the reason you thought it was a mandolin, is because it is likely a tenor banjo, which has 4 strings and is tuned in fifths like a mandolin but several frets lower than GDAE, if that makes sense. Tenor banjos were very popular from the 20's to the 50's before they were replaced by the 5 string bluegrass banjo. I am an autistic music nerd 🎸🪕 🎶🤓 ☮️🫡 CGDA tenor banjo tuning
My Father was a WW2 Naval Veteran, a Radio operator on the USS Wasp CV-18 in 43'/44' Dad recorded all the dog fights and other communications while on the ship deployed in the South Pacific on a wire recorder, nichrome reel to reel he called it. When he was discharged, he had the recordings in his steamer trunk which ultimately was either misplaced or stolen, unfortunately Dad never recovered his belongings or the recordings which would have been Smithsonian institute material today.
In the 1990s I had an ESS AudioDrive sound card that came with software that allowed more record time for recording than Win 3.11 did "natively", and I "burnt" all of my (1960s-'80s) family reel to reel tapes and cassettes to (THEN EXPENSIVE) external HDDs. Now multiple (Dozens!) of copies exist on peoples phones, SD cards, CDs etc... It's SO easy now to digitize, save and distribute audio, PLEASE, Everyone: If you have old media AND a way to play it...Digitize and copy the heck out of it!
The song that starts at 3:04 is an old standard called "Peg O'My Heart." I like the way the reading head moves up and down as the wire plays. And I love the pronunciation of "Caroleen."
The head does that to properly "spool" the wire. It's CRITICAL that the wire is spooled properly of course, But it is a mesmerizing part of wire recording!
Yes, Peg O' My Heart, a 1913 hit that became one of the standards periodically revived as late as the 1960s. Wikipedia has an article about it.
It's amazing to me that wire recordings sound as good as they do. They're so thin that until I first heard one I assumed they'd be a lot more distorted.
Thanks for sharing!
@@xargos they say because the wire moves so fast it actually records the sound at a fairly high fidelity than compared to magnetic tape of the time simply because each second occupied a more physical length. Idk if any of that is true though lol
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 yes, 24 ips.
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 It is PART of the reason, Naturally, the magnetic media "going like hell" past the record/play head WILL be better than moving slower! BUT Also wire recorders almost universally were expensive well made machines. When tape became a "thing", cheaper tape formulations and really cheap machines quite quickly appeared on the market. So tape could have REALLY GOOD sound in the 1950's OR really BAD sound in the 1950's. Wire recording was a more consistent quality.
Wire recording is NOT convenient, BUT it was always good quality as to audio. (It's main limit, sonically, is being MONO only) Most wire recording I've heard from the 1950's are superior to tapes of the same vintage.
I came here to say exactly the same thing. The fidelity is mindboggling.
My uncle had one of these. Recorded by sister at age 5 (1953) singing all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.
That's so cool to hear real people from the 50's
We lost my Dad in 1967, but in 1966, his office had a huge party for him and recorded it on magnetic tape. With a friend's help, I was able to transfer it to cassette about 10 years later. When I played it for my Mom, she didn't find it comforting at all. The first small offhand remark he made on the tape made her gasp loudly. I mean she was almost literally hearing a ghost and it freaked her out. She did manage to sit through the tape, but she was so upset, I never played it for her again. I went looking for it some years ago and it "disappeared" from my old room. I suspect she threw it out because it was too much for her. I was not quite 6 when Dad passed, and AFAIK, this was the only recording of his voice that we had.
@@notthatyouasked6656 that's a hard truth to live with, I'm really sorry.
What a strange, unsettling story, but understandable from your Mom’s point of view. Audio tapes exist of me pontificating on life during the summer after high school and I don’t think I want to ever listen to them.
@@ProfessorEchoMediathe day after my father died I found a recording of his instructions to do after he died. Using IEMs in stereo. “Please Reach behind the radio, you’ll find a black notebook. It has my passwords. Then …”
Wonderful video - Thanks for making this! Many of BBC Radio's recordings were made on a wire recorder called the Blattnerphone during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. All the best from the UK.
Actually Im pretty sure it used metal tape like a band on a pallet
These were fascinating and at times unnerving! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for doing this! What a gorgeous experience. I found myself mesmerized by listening and just watching the recorder do it's job. My brain filled in the images of the family!
@paulconnell22 I know every now and again I Google "Carolene" or 3rd and cayuga still can't quite nail down exactly where they lived
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 I wish you luck, but as you say, it's so difficult to pin people in history down, without a location. I have done similar things in the past with my hobby, but with hand written diaries and documents.
Yep bullet bras and bouffant hairdo's
That was awesome, love the lost radio broadcast!
Thank you for presenting snippets of the long lost past! It was fascinating!💯👏👏❤️
Thanks for sharing. I remember when I was just a few years old and here was an old one of these at our home. Don’t even know if it worked but I used to take the bullet mic and play like I was calling Sky King from my improvised tower. In more current times, I remember hearing the late and great Mr Rupert Neve talk about his first audio job recording for Winston Churchill, his speeches on a portable wire recorder, pre WWll.
Fascinating glimpse into the past. Thanks for sharing.
Peg O My Heart was a huge hit around 1948 or so. Great stuff.
I like how the playback/record head unit goes up and down.
A friend of mine whose dad, a doctor, had a wire recorder from the Korean War. It was used in a MASH unit for dictation. We, my friend and I, used to play with the recorder in the early 1970s, maybe '70-'71, if I can recall correctly. There was a fresh, unused wire reel that we recorded on, Tom on guitar, me on piano, and "Ringo" Jim on drums. Just jammin' but the fidelity wasn't all that great, but we could hear that we were using one microphone in a concrete basement of a house.
Thanks for sharing this old wire recorder with us, it did really bring up an old memory of mine, that happened over 50 years ago.
@@joelfrombethlehem I bet that recording you made will sound pretty good today compared to a cassette from the same period, you should dig it up.
I have audio recordings of my famil that go back to 1942. Prescrious memories. The one recording of 1942 was on a record recorder that was a cardboardrecord whith some kind of coating like plastic that the groove was cut into it. The only recording of my grandmother we have. Then, moy brother made disc recording in the early 1950s amd moved on to tapes in 1955. I continued with reel to reel recording from 1958 until 1960 when my recorder deied. But, i kept the tapes and have transfered some to CD for the family to have. They aren't interested as i was to hear people that are no longer with us.
around 1967? i found a working one in a war surplus shop in Los Angeles. I think it cost around $5. There was nothing recorded on the spool that was already mounted, but it did record and play back.
Splicing must've been a pain.
I know what you mean about the frustration of the wire getting tangled. I have a wire recorder and dozens of recordings that I have transferred, and some of those recordings, because they were not stored with a proper leader on them, were hopelessly tangled. The wire is a special type of magnetic stainless steel, 0.004 inches thick, and it's VERY springy.
I like to replace those plastic leaders with multifilament fishing line. It is strong, you can find it in fluorescent colors that make it easy to see, and simply adding about two feet of it to the end of the wire gives you an easy-to-handle leader that when wrapped around the spool and secured with a bit of tape will keep the spools from getting tangled. Good luck with those wires!
@@TheAnalogTapeMuseum that's great advice!
Awesome post! Appreciate your efforts to preserve history!
Terrific share. Thanks for these ghost glimpses of history.
I still have my dad’s reel to reel tape recorder from the early sixties and my voice was so high in 1961 that it could shatter glass and summon hounds from blocks around.
The play The Death of a Salesman has a memorable scene involving a wire recorder.
@@Twentythousandlps it was a harbinger of the future then, now it's an artifact, strange times.
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 If the play had come a few years later than 1949, it would have been a tape recorder of course.
Amazing! I knew about wax cylinder recordings, even paper recordings, but this is the first I've heard about wire recordings! I'm surprised at how clear the sound is. Yes, the audio is a bit primitive but has none of the background noise, pops, clicks and other artifacts that other early recording methods often do. Very interesting.
@@laureenmanera3232 it was far superior to the magnetic tape of the time, I was surprised the wire sound didn't degrade nearly as much as a cassette half it's age.
wire recorders were common use into the 1970s in Flight Data Recorders /Cockpit Voice Recorders.. 1960s and 1970s used either wire or metal foil... mag tape would have melted so metal was used...it was in the 1990s they finally used solid state memory...
I'm amazed that it all still works, at least as good as a reasonable domestic tape recorder from the 1950s or 1960s. The record/play amplifier has tubes, and that is all fine too.
@@rodpeeler7847 the player was very hot after the 4th reel
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 IF you can take the output from the head into a modern solid state amp and put a switch to take the heaters etc out of power for the tubes that can be done, or sometime you just need more airflow, alternatively my old valve TVs and amps kept the bedroom warm in cold winters
Happy New Year Eric 🥳🎉 Thanks for the knowledge and entertainment
@@ScratchOffFeverOBE Happy New Year's scratch
I don’t have any wire recordings, but I have old cassettes that my dad, who is a musician, recorded in the 90s and early 2000s. I have digitized them between 2020 and 2022 😊 14 songs that add up to a total of 48 minutes. Also, in 2002 he also used a Roland VS-880 I think it was (a digital multitrack recorder), and I “digitized” 4 recordings from that as well (those are part of the 14), one of which was a song that we also had on cassette, but the cassette seems to be lost forever.
Those always amazed me, the head must be made of a very hard steel so the wire wouldn't cut into it, I've seen wire recorders in museums, but never got to mess with one in person, i restore old radios and audio equipment. Thanks for sharing.
@@waltergabriel3694 under $100 buck on eBay, took about a year of hunting though. Have you ever restored a cylinder player?
@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 no i haven't, it would be an interesting experience, most of what I do is old 78 turntables out of Philco radios and Rca consoles
Great! I've worked with pretty much every other analog audio format from wax cylinders on, but never even saw a wire machine in working order!
"Silvertone" was a Sears brand for radios, TVs, and..Well wire (and tape) recorders. Source: My mother worked for Sears her whole career, So I grew up with LOTS of Sears brands!
Thank you, I've never seen one of these being used and had no idea they were so cheap.
The song is called Peg of my Heart. It's a standard.
At 3:18, the name of that song is actually called Peg O My Heart.
I think the cleaned version of the family tape might be broken on the internet archive - or it might be something on my end. Thank you for doing this! It has Guy Lombardo's 'Enjoy Yourself, it's later than you think' which is one of my favorite early 50s tunes.
@@brandonquinto4852 I love that song
Back when you could make a “mix tape” with wire cutters and a soldering iron…
Recording fascinated me from an early age when I was given a wind-up Victrola and some 1920s-30s records by my parents. Then I discovered that our across-the-street neighbors had a wire recorder in their living room (part of an entertainment console). I pestered them to show me how it worked. The answer: not well. Surely not as well as this Air-O-King machine does. In 1957, Sears Roebuck in our town started carrying tape recorders and I was hooked for life. I still own one and it works. Congratulations on this machine. It works quite well in spire of the jerk who decided to erase part of the family recording with his less than interesting comments.
There are Cayuga Streets in Western NY such as Ithica, Oswego and Ithaca. However, I best remember 3rd and Cayuga in (North) Philadelphia, PA back home. The excellent reception of WIBG (pre rock and roll and Joe Niagara in this case) hints they are referring to Philadelphia. Just a theory. I made it a point to preserve media of my parents some of which is posted on my channel. Your presentation is excellent and we watched with great interest.
@@hemi350hp I think your estimation is the best so far
Could be slang for Cuyahoga too, Erie is not far away
The first jazz tune sounds like Heartbreak Hotel.
That’s what I heard too
There is a Cayuga St is in Ithaca, NY; one of the main roads.
Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't another, but picking up a station from Philadphia over the AM radio waves up there, especially at night, and in those days, would not have been out of the question.
@@luvmyrecords Cayuga and 3rd?
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 A quick search shows there is a 3rd and Cayuga in Philadelphia. Coupled with the radio station, I think Philly itself is a good bet. (West Cayuga and North 3rd)
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 Theres a 3rd and it joins what is shown as present day Cayuga Waterfront Trail
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 There is a 3rd and Cayuga in Philadelphia
Wire recordings can become very tangled.
Awesome. The only one I've seen in person was a Webcor at museum in Ardmore (OK).
@@LarryRobinsonintothefog eBay is still the place for all things odd and antiquated
HOLY WOW That is really neat
i collect and restore recording gear and have many wire recorders. RCA ,Webster,Air King, Pentron,Wire way and Lear are but a few. I have a working Pierce that I repaired and helped the owner transfer some recordings from 1950. The machine is actually the precursor of the Pierce but was sold in 1943 under a different name. A reporter from the Dayton Daily news drove to Alaska and recorded many historical figures which I believe were aired on WHIO in Dayton. They are on the Alsaka historical website . .
The Cayuga tribe was one of the Five Nations of the League of Iroquois who lived mainly in New York State. As such, there is, in NY, a Village of Cayuga, a Cayuga County, and a Cayuga Lake, which is one of the Finger Lakes. So, as others have offered here, there are quite a few Cayuga Streets throughout this region. One interesting tidbit is that during the 30's and 40's law enforcement would often tap into telephone lines and use wire recorders to secretly record people, and the term "wiretap" was born.
Thank you for sharing this recording. Thank you for saving it.
This was a wonderful window into the past.. Getting to hear the voices from the greatest generation was terrific. This was something almost lost to time. I'm only 50 however I always felt a strong connection to the 1920s to 50s. I don't know maybe this is something to reincarnation ? I don't know
But thanks
Suprised by the lack of background static.
@@JamesGillert-x6o I scrubbed the noise for this short vid, the original is at the link the description. It had a constant tone though the output, I should have just mic'd the speaker it sounded warm and still pretty clean
Reminds me of the sewing box wire recorder from Hogans Heroes.
@@FranksPlace-jk7pj I love that show!
If the Internet Archive survives, THAT would be a good place to upload these recordings!!! BTW, Happy Birthday Caroline! (there IS a non zero chance that she is still out here, since she is described as "little".)
Yes, the link in the description, lots of surprises in there.
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 YES! Sorry I missed the Archive link! Lots of times I miss reading the description. (My bad!) The Internet Archive is a NATIONAL TREASURE, Up there with the actual Library of Congress...Maybe MORE SO! This is SO COOL!
I've got a Webster- Chicago Model 288 that I'll be restoring soon. Interesting to hear what's on all the reels of wire I have.
@@teacfan1080 on my mine the sound coming out of the speakers actually sounds better than through the audio plug, but then if I recorded the speaker audio I would get the clickty clack of the machine, I used audacity to edit out a constant drone from the audio output through the cable
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 can you tap into the wires to the speaker -though its probably mis matched impedence off the "line out" check . work out if you need 4,8 or 16 ohms and a small resistor might help
Great history one of the few left
3:09 Peg O' My Heart, actually...👍
@@n84434 thank you!
I used to see these wire recorders at the swap meets in the late 60s. I have collected many different recording formats over the years, I might have picked up one of these, but they were generally accompanied by a Griswold-esque mass of tangled wire, and looked very discouraging.
New sub. Very informative.My father was a recording engineer and told me about the wire recorders.I never saw one.He told me the Germans had them before the war.Would like to hear what a broadcast microphone sounds like on that thin wire.My father was one of the pioneers in LP, and Stereophonic tape recordings in the 50's at Columbia Records.He did the Battle Hymn of the Republic w/ Mormon Tabernacle Choirr and Ormandy and Philadelphia Orch.1959. Album The Lod's Prayer was first classical record to go gold.
@@frankbruno9499 cool you should digitize anything he left laying around
@@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 Great minds think alike.In the process of transferring old family recordings. from the 30's.
It sounds like you went a little heavy on the noise reduction. It muffled the audio and there were a lot of digital artifacts going on. I always transfer off stuff dry with no processing or NR. Then, if I use any of it in post, I don't just apply a filter. I capture a baseline of the noise from a silent or quiet passage in the recording and remove just that noise from the entire recording. Either processed with software like Adobe Audition or inversely by polarity. Anyway, that's a pretty cool find. Old "found audio" is always a fun score.
There is a Cayuga, Indiana. But it could have been Cuyahoga area, which is sometimes pronounced about the same. That area is closer to Philadelphia.
My father had one of those and he gave it away in the 50's. I sure wish he'd given it to me. 🙁
News/ opinion on the radio complaining about possible beligerance of Russia in 1950, well we are sure glad of 75 years of progress since then
F’ing russians
Heartbreak Hotel?
I dunno, but in the full recordings, these bands are frustratingly close close to playing something really cool, but never hit the mark for me.
Wire recorders wire ran at 24 inches per second! That's 2 feet per second! The wire was as thin as a hair! One full reel would run a full 60 minutes!
They say the long length per second is part fo the reason the sound quality was so good for the time
I had one in the mid 60’s
Dad said he used to have a wire recorder and that, if the wire broke, you just tied the two ends together in a knot and continue from there.
I have a number of "field recordings" from Woodstock, not the concert itself but, the goings on in the crowds and one that I think was recorded in the hospital tent. It's really cool to hear that knowing that you're listening to a piece of history actually taking place, although, it's not much more than a handful of people chattering away, one guy complaining that he just wants to go HOME! and a dog, Lucy, I think, barking a lot inside the tent. (Not so cool is some guy threatening several times to kick the dog in the throat!!) It makes you feel like you're actually right there. Similar to if you had an audio recording of what actually went down at the last supper. Unlike someone playing music, it'll never ever happen again! It was caught on tape in JUST that ONE moment in time!!
The title is Peg O’ My Heart.
The first song sounds like 'Heartbreak Hotel.'
That's Heartbreak Hotel
@@ocsrcInterestingly enough it wasn't written yet
Is the w&f the player or the recording?
There's a Kayuga Street in Victorville, CA, area looks too new.... there's a Cayuga IN, and a Cayuga NY! No numbered or lettered streets.... hmmmmmm
The thin tape from the late 70s and early 80s, they had different types of machines. 4 track and 2 track and 1 track and I would bet they had a 8 track
I bought studio recordings from the early 80s and I had a 2 track machine and the tapes were 4 tracks
I tried to find a 4 track machine but they were used in studios.
My dad worked at GE Schenectady too, in the mailroom
12345
They would get all the Santa Claus letters from the Northeast
They would ask for guys to take a letter and write back to the kids
And some of the letters were really sad and guys would buy gifts for the kids that were poor
3rd and Cayuga, Lewiston NY, or Oswego NY or possibly Philadelphia, Fulton NY and Ithaca NY also had these streets
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio?
Cayuga, N.Y.
Interesting!
One of our new BMP Archives family films... The 1958 film is in Honor & Memory of my 1st cousin Nancy Ann Bresky Ransegnola. Great preservation. Thank you "The Other." ua-cam.com/video/ixBMrpCEjx8/v-deo.html
These were used in the Whitehouse and JFK was one of the presidents that had these
Heartbreak hotel
Some real history on these machines! I have a 1952 recording from a wire recorder discussing 'Should America go to war with Korea.'
ua-cam.com/video/Bbh5T7FQesY/v-deo.htmlsi=ULDhrlEzk1hpYSDz
hi this why you got to record analog and not on to a silly phone
i am in the recording trans game the safe way is to record on to betacam or a new fox reel to reel tape or new cassette tape
I wish my father's voice had been the sound of safety... nope.
That's a banjo, not a mandolin 😉
@@monkeytennis7477 omg you're right, I thought It sounded an octave lower, and then the player must be pre Scruggs, my bluegrass rep is now under review.
@theotherstatesofamericahis5212 Well the reason you thought it was a mandolin, is because it is likely a tenor banjo, which has 4 strings and is tuned in fifths like a mandolin but several frets lower than GDAE, if that makes sense. Tenor banjos were very popular from the 20's to the 50's before they were replaced by the 5 string bluegrass banjo. I am an autistic music nerd 🎸🪕
🎶🤓 ☮️🫡 CGDA tenor banjo tuning
@monkeytennis7477 that fits the sound precisely!
My Father was a WW2 Naval Veteran, a Radio operator on the USS Wasp CV-18 in 43'/44' Dad recorded all the dog fights and other communications while on the ship deployed in the South Pacific on a wire recorder, nichrome reel to reel he called it. When he was discharged, he had the recordings in his steamer trunk which ultimately was either misplaced or stolen, unfortunately Dad never recovered his belongings or the recordings which would have been Smithsonian institute material today.
Wire recordings are very fragile.
Isn't this a Dictaphone?
What you are hearing is flutter
Meow
I concur
Meeeooow
Moew indeed