$25,000 grant to preserve a strip of tinfoil

[Starkton]

A box with a strip of tinfoil, possibly recorded on June 22, 1878 in St. Louis, was donated exactly 100 years later to the Schenectady Museum. Just recently the Museum received a $25,000 Save America's Treasures grant to preserve the fragile recording.

British researchers and engineers of the University of Southampton, part of the Sound Archive Project, will use non-contact scanning to preserve the encoded sound and reproduce it in a digital format. They will make a three-dimensional scan of the entire surface of the tinfoil and software programs will translate that virtual surface back into sound.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article ... 331323.php

[barnettrp21122]

Interesting article!

Quote:
"The $25,735 Save America's Treasures grant was one of 61 awarded this year in a 12-year-old federal program aimed at the "urgent preservation needs" of the country's most significant collections and historic sites."

I suppose the tinfoil project is as worthy as others to get this federal grant money, which is going to be spent on some project one way or the other.
Someone (plus a spouse, friend, or maybe a whole group) is going to get a nice trip to Southhampton, England, since the foil won't just be sent in the mail. Come to think of it, this may not be enough to provide all interested parties with a comfortable visit!
I'm not against the preservation part; it's just that I feel pretty sure every penny of this grant will be spent on this since it's been allocated anyway, and the way things work you never return unused money.
I hope there's something interesting on the recording. Maybe it'll be the first example of someone having "mike fright!"
Bob

[Lucius1958]

Interesting! Although the folds in the foil (not to mention the couple of lacunae) might pose a significant problem....

[fmblizz]

With the shape our economy is in GO FIGURE

Send the check to Missouri or Oklahoma..


fmblizz

[Garret]

That's a lot of money, especially considering that the Edison National Historic Site has foil in much better condition, iirc.