The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Henry - thanks for sharing. I knew there was a scientific explanation for what I was hearing and why it's not exactly ear-pleasing!

Too bad none of these recording sessions were ever filmed, at least none that I know of.

Would it not be great to see a video of how they recorded this one?

Well, beings the recording studio was on the roof of 79 5th avenue, they may have stuck a recording horn out the window, and captured it the studio was 2.5 miles from Trinity Church. I think though they brought a recording machine into the lower part of the bell tower. I have recorded bands 100 feet away, when the sound pressure was 115 decibles, and got some loud recordings. I do though hear the echo of the street too in the recording, they may have even set up in an ajecent building with the horn on an up angle. Just some therois. If I was still in NY I could experiment. Remember that Edison
s recording heads were much more sensitive than a gramophone cutter, and, by this time, dome shaped with the center stiff-like a tweeter of today, and the outside with a surround very similar to a foam woofer suround, and made of cellulose Xanathate.

I noticed there's 10 seconds from when the reproducer dropped into the first turn of the groove before the music began. I could hear a slight flutter in the reproduction which makes me wonder if the original recording was made on a cylinder? Also, the decay of the last note is abruptly cut off; I don't know how that could have been accomplished on an original recording. It didn't sound like the reproducer left the end of the recorded groove at that moment (as if, were this originally recorded on a disc, the original engineer would have lifted the cutter before the last note completely died away). I imagine they had to stop the recorder before another song began....

Different kind of bell. Here's Raymond Sooy of the Victor Talking Machine Co recording the Liberty Bell for something to do with the Pan-American Exposition in San Fran in 1915, These records were never issued to the public, but they were supposedly played at the opening ceremonies in San Francisco. This may have been via long distance telephone beceause the trans continental line was opened about that time.

Jim

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/14803

Clarence Furguson, actually talks about this recording session, very vividly they did indeed take the disc recorder up the bell tower, and they got lice from the pigeons.

Re: the photo of Raymond Sooy and the Liberty Bell. The caption text is in error.* The 1915 fair in San Francisco was the Pan-Pacific Exposition. The Pan-American Exposition was held in Buffalo, NY in 1901-1902.

*"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."
Mark Twain

That's true in fact. See what I get for believing captions. There are others that are dodgy in that book.

J