VintageTechnologies wrote:Aaron: Holy Cow! A 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle! It hardly seems possible, but there it is, pieced together like an ancient Greek vase. In the blank areas that fill in the missing bits, are those areas grooved, or left plain? I have wanted to try my hand sometime at filling in pitted wax cylinders and have wondered how the cylinder doctor fills and evenly smooths the area level so the stylus will track over the blank area without skipping.
Indeed, amazing talent was executed here! The blank areas, I believe, are just smooth, with no grooves, which makes tracking a big issue, and how he gets these areas flush with the surface of the cylinder, is something I can not even guess at the logistics of. I have somewhere in an email, an MP3 file of the entire recording. Being that only the tops works of the machine is present, it was connected to an electrical motor so steady speed. And the MP3 file was made using a microphone, with someone holding and tracking a reproducer by hand across the groove. If I can find the file anywhere, I'll try and post it. The more I think of it, perhaps the recording was around 6 or 7 minutes, but certainly no longer. The most amazing part about this project, is that the cylinder was completely reconstructed WITHOUT the machine. The Cylinder Doctor had no form, or guide to place the piece on during reconstruction. When the machine and cylinder were finally mated, it fit like a glove! Mike is truly an artisan.
Aaron