The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

As a child, my Grand Dad gave me a peculiar device, which has long since disappeared. It was a card, about 5X7 inches, with a flat plastic cord attached to the center. When the card was held in one hand by the edges, and with the thumb and pointing figure of the other hand pinching the cord, with the thumbnail pulled along the edge of the cord, a phrase was produced. I'm surmising there was hill and dale data embossed or pressed into the flat edge of the cord. The novelty device was thus a crude acoustic phonograph and record. Does anyone remember what these were called and what they were for? Russie

I don't know the name, but the principle was used until audio chips took over. Somewhere I have a red plastic strip from a Ninja Turtles figure- if you run a stiff card over it you hear COWABUNGA!

Yes, I've seen a Schwinn advertising card. When you swiped your fingernail across the strip you faintly heard "Buy a Schwinn". Jerry Blais

Oh yeah!

I once crossed paths with one of those in 1981. It was a printed cut-out of 1960s Elvis with the plastic bit extending from his, er, middle. It said: "Love me tender". Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It was so wrong that I've been kicking myself ever since for not tracking one down. I'm sorry, but I never knew the name of the device.

Martin

At one I time envisioned a rumble strip along the edge of the freeway with ridges so spaced that driving over them produced the word "DANGER" or some other appropriate warning. I think someone has since come up with a similar idea but I think it produces a musical tune instead.

I saw something similar to what you describe, but only once. Back in the 1980s a girl in my office got flowers and balloons for her birthday. One of the balloons hand a ribbon-like plastic strip attached to it. When you ran a thumbnail down it you heard it say "I Love You", with the balloon acting as a sounding board.

I had one that said Happy Birthday.

Some of those rumble strips say Slow Down as you approach a turnpike toll booth.

Here's an example of a talking birthday card sold on Ebay some years back: Bob

Wow! Thanks you guys! I've wondered for years if it was just a one time thing, but I guess these were more common than I thought. Russie Ofria

The plastic strips are still available for future collectors at the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum, Edison, NJ. They are also sold at the Hearthstone House Museum in Appleton, WI. On September 30, 1882, Hearthstone became the country's first house to be lit from a central hydroelectric power station using the Edison system.

We used the strips when we had a seminar for children regarding Edison and the phonograph. They enjoyed being a human phonograph.

Rob & Joan