Inventory of recordings preserved on tinfoil

[Juanma]

Institución                                               signatura                                               Fecha                                                       Observaciones
Edison National Historic Site [1]                   -    -                                                                                                                    Grabada en un Bergman
Edison National Historic Site [2]                  -    -                                                                                                                     Grabada en un Bergman
Edison National Historic Site [3]                -    -    -
Edison National Historic Site [4]                     -                                                             1878?    -
Institución Smithsonian [1] 
National Museum of American Historic    Id Number:GA.00672                    1878-04-18 ¿?   https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_808730
Institución Smithsonian [2]    -    -                                                                                                                                             Donada en 1925
Biblioteca del Congreso [1]    -                                                                                      1970?    
Biblioteca del Congreso [2]    -                                                                                     1970?    
Audio Belfer (Universidad de Syracuse)    -                                                              1930?    
Schenectady Museum of Innovation and Science     -                                          1878                                                           Sant Louis
Museo Henry Ford [1]    -                                                                                                1880?                                        Voz de Sara Bernhardt ¿?
Museo Henry Ford [2]    -                                                                                               1878?    -
Edison-Ford Winter Estates [1]    -                                                                               1879-04-02 ¿?    -
Edison-Ford Winter Estates [2]    -                                                                               1920ss?    -
Biblioteca británica    -    -    -
Museo Noruego de Ciencia y Tecnología [1]    -                                                        1879?    Corneta?
Museo Noruego de Ciencia y Tecnología [2]    -                                                      1882-1884c    -
Museo Tekniska de Estocolmo [1]    -    -    -
Museo Tekniska de Estocolmo  [2]    -    -    -
-    -                                                                                                                                      1890?                                                       Lambert Talking Clock
Charles Hummel Collection (privado)    -    -     
Christie's de Londres (venta)     -    -                                                                                                                             Vendida en diciembre de 1999, grabada en un Parlor
 

[Juanma]

Podrían ayudarme a completar un inventario de las láminas de tinfoil conservadas?

 

Could you help me complete an inventory of the preserved tinfoil sheets?

[Tinfoilphono]

At first glance your list appears to be consistent with the data I have put together in 30 years of research.

 

Two years ago I coordinated with Carlene Stephens at the Smithsonian Institution, who wanted to know about surviving tinfoil recordings in order to put their holdings into context. This is what I wrote to her at the time, with additional details (where possible):

 

Quote

The question about survivors is somewhat opaque, primarily because provenance is vague on most, and few have ever been recovered digitally. I am aware of the following contenders:

 

Edison National Historic Site - 4

- One was apparently recorded on a Bergmann Exhibition phonograph and was found in the basement of an employee's home in the 1930s. It is tightly rolled and may not be openable without damage. There's no way to know where or when it was originally recorded.

- Another apparently made on a Bergmann is wrapped around a board and mounted with rivets. Again, there is no provenance.

- One was transferred to the Site from Edison's winter home in Florida, found between the pages of a 1936 magazine. This very possibly might have been recorded on a phonograph in Florida as late as the 1930s. There is no way to know.

- The last is a partial sheet donated to Edison in 1929, ostensibly recorded in 1878. There is no way to prove or disprove this story, so it is doubtful.

 

Smithsonian Institution - 2

-You are surely familiar with these. One is potentially very promising, possibly recorded at the demonstration on April 18, 1878. I would dearly love to hear that digitally restored. However it was not retained at the time of recording, and was donated back in 1901. So that leaves it open to question. The other may have been made on a demonstration phonograph but it was donated in 1923 and its origins are murky.

 

Library of Congress - 2

- There is very strong reason to believe that these sheets were actually recorded at the Henry Ford Museum in the 1970s and were retained by the then director of the LoC as souvenirs. Sam Brylawski confirmed that to me in the 1990s. They are very unlikely to date to the 19th century.

 

Syracuse University - 1

- This one is strongly believed to be a 1930s souvenir recording from the Ford. There is no clear provenance and the story that it was recorded on the original Kruesi prototype phonograph is easily disproved by the threads-per-inch of the recording itself.

 

Schenectady Museum - 1

- This may well be the only recording with solid provenance. A stunning survivor, obviously.

 

Henry Ford Museum - 2

- Though it lacks incontrovertible provenance, there is very strong reason to believe that one recording was made in Edison's lab in 1878 by Sarah Bernhardt. I have lobbied for years to get this digitized, but despite close contacts within the Ford Museum I have never been able to convince the Powers-That-Be to do so. I still hope it will be done someday. It's not entirely out of the question that it could even contain a snippet of Edison's voice, but that may be hoping for too much.

- A fairly poor condition recording was purportedly made in 1878 and was donated to the Ford in 1971. Without real provenance it's anyone's guess.

 

Edison-Ford Winter Estates - 2

- One is just a scrap, not a complete recording. It was donated in 1982 but has no clear provenance, though it is claimed to date to April 2, 1879.

- The other is a Bergmann-sized full sheet, signed by Edison across the grooves as "Edison Record Model 1877/78." This was probably recorded in the 1920s but it's not impossible that Edison may have signed an old sheet years later. The signature is typical of his old-age writing so it was not signed in the 1870s or 1880s. I have no reason to believe it's any older than the 1920s.

 

Private collection - 1

- The late Charley Hummel had a recorded sheet, but when he had it digitized several years ago there was nothing recovered from it. Nothing is known of its provenance.

 

British library -1

- Unfortunately I have no details on this.

 

Britain:

- a recorded sheet was sold at Christies many years ago along with an Edison Parlor Model phonograph.

 

Norway - 2

-  The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology in Oslo has two tinfoil phonograph recordings. One was ostensibly made in Norway in February 1879, and was digitized at the University of Southampton in 2009. It is only about 7 seconds long and contains what is probably the sound of a bugle. The other recording, ostensibly from 1882-1884 was digitally recovered by Carl Haber at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, MA, in 2018. It is more than 2 minutes long and has a lot of sound (speech, music), but it is largely unintelligible. There was a sound file for it online, but the link is sadly now dead. I was unable to decipher anything from it when I listened to it repeatedly in 2018.

 

- Tekniska Museet in Stockholm reportedly has 2 recordings, but I have no details.

 

There may well be a few more out there, yet to come to light. But all in all there are very few, and of those only a couple have any realistic provenance. The St. Louis / Schenectady recording remains the best documented and only intelligibly recovered example to date.

 

I have a piece of recorded foil in my collection, glued to an exhibitor's advertising trade card. The indentations are clear but alas, it's merely a small scrap. Any sound that might be recoverable would be snippets too short to be meaningful. 

 

 

The Smithsonian attempted to recover sound from their two sheets. The one that may have been recorded at the demonstration in Washington in April 1878 was unfortunately too damaged to be digitized. The other, clearly recorded on a small Demonstration phonograph had a few barely audible sounds but was too poor to understand.

 

The only recording that has been recovered with clearly audible speech and music is the sheet recorded in St. Louis in 1879, in the Schenectady museum.

 

I still hope that someday the Ford Museum will digitize the alleged Bernhardt sheet. The condition is not perfect but most of it looks intact and relatively free of serious damage. The size of the sheet, and threads per inch, prove conclusively that it was recorded on a brass Bergmann Exhibition 'Drawing Room Instrument,' with 40 tpi. Edison kept such a machine in his lab, as is evidenced in pictures from the era. The appearance, size, tpi, and provenance all point to it being exactly what it claims, making it potentially a hugely important historic recording.

[Juanma]

Muchas gracias René

Le envié un email en relación a un tinfoil que aparece en un periodico español, le envío la imagen por aquí por el foro?

Saludos

 

PD: Me parece muy curioso que conservemos más piezas anotadas de música de la Grecia Antigua en los también frágiles papiros que grabaciones en tinfoil. También me resulta muy extraño que no se conserve nada del antiguo Daily Phonograph

 

Thank you very much René.

Did I send him an email regarding a tyinfoil that appears in a Spanish newspaper, do I send him the image here on the forum?

Greetings

PS: I find it very curious that we keep more annotated pieces of music from Ancient Greece in the also fragile papyri than recordings in tinfoil. I also find it very strange that nothing of the old Daily Phonograph is preserved.

[Tinfoilphono]

If you want to email me directly my address is rene@rondeau.net.